Magic Within
by Night-Shadow-98
Summary: What if Emma used magic that day the Snow Queen dragged her in front of a car? Emma still has a curse to break, and Ingrid still has a third sister to find. Will Ingrid risk Emma's love to get her and go through with her plans, or can this tragic villain finally get her happily ever after, not with new sisters, but a new daughter? Eventual femslash couples. AU
1. Magic Awakened

A/N

 _Hello, ! How are you all, this fine... Err... Morning... Afternoon... Evening... Well, whatever time it is where you are, I hope you are doing well. :D_

 _This is my very first FanFic. I'm pretty new at this whole writers thing, but I've been told I have quite a way with words, so I think I have something to offer writing community. This doesn't mean I'm perfect though, ha ha, no. I'm a perfectly imperfect being, just like the rest of the human race, so some constructive criticism would go along way in helping my writing skills._

 _So without further ado, I present to you chapter one of Magic Within. Hope you enjoy!_

 **Magic Within**

Chapter 1

The last few weeks were absolutely heaven for Emma Swan. For the first time in her life, she is going to have a family. When she fiirst heard about Ingrid's plan to adopt her, she was pretty skeptical. She had long ago resigned herself to the fact that she was just never going to be adopted. She was too old and no family would want to adopt a snippy, jaded teenager like herself. She was just waiting for the moment where it will all go wrong and the cloud she was currently floating on would evaporate out from under her. But, in the weeks since the arcade, where Ingrid told her she was adopting her, everything remained perfect. Emma finally allowed herself something she thought was stomped out her her, hope.

Ingrid and Emma were on their way home from a late night at the movies. As the two stood at a bus stop about to head home, Emma was smiling. It was the same smile that hadn't left her face all week, even when she was asleep and Ingrid was same.

Emma shivered as a late winters breeze blew over them. Then to top it all off, a car raced and sprayed water at them, but even that didn't dower Emma's joy.

"It's nights like this I wish I just had the power to poof home like Harry Potter. If I was like him, I could be standing here in the cold one minute, and home soaking in the tub the next."

"That would be something, wouldn't it" Ingrid replied.

For no particular reason, Emma chuckled in delight. That seemed to be happening a lot the last few days.

"Emma," Ingrid said. Emma looked up and saw a wistful expression on her soon-to-be-mothers face, "do you remember how much fun we had at the arcade last week?"

"Of course. Best day I had in a long time. How could I forget?"

"And do you remember how the lights in the game flickered right before you won?"

Emma certainly remembered that, but at the time, she brushed it of, "yeah, weird."

Emma had no idea where Ingrid was going with this, but Emma sensed there was more to this, and the expression Ingrid gave her next confirmed this. She was now very serious about something.

"What if it was more than just weird?" She said, "what if it meant you were on the cusp of a great self-revelation?"

Emma stared at Ingrid, confused. She looked deadly serious, but what she said had to be a joke. As Ingrid turned to look at something on the road, Emma waited for her to just start laughing, but a gut feeling told her that wasn't going to happen. Emma wanted to say something but before she could, Ingrid suddenly grabbed her hand.

"I think its time," she declared and started pulling Emma onto the road.

"What are you doing?" Emma asked feeling fear start to bubble up from her gut.

Ingrid came to a stop right in the middle of the road. Emma's eyes zeroed in on the blinding headlight of the car barreling toward them.

"Stop the car," Ingrid commanded.

"WHAT?!" Emma shrieked. In the span of a few sentences, Emma's cloud had finally imploded and she had slammed violently back to earth. The only thing that mattered too her now was survival.

"Trust your instincts." Emma fought against Ingrid's grip, "Do it. Stop the car,"

"Let go of me!" Emma demanded. She fought harder as the car drew closer, and she almost managed to break free, but Ingrid then latched her other hand on to Emma's and prevented her escape. The car was now only a few feet away. Emma knew it was over. How cruel was fate to give her hope, only to kill her for daring to wish she could have a family. To give her what she wanted her whole life, but have her would-be-mother turn out to be a suicidal nut job. Emma slammed her eyes closed so she wouldn't have to see her death coming, and she wished; wished with all her heart, that she was somewhere else. Anywhere but here.

Emma felt a strange tingle in her chest, but paid it no mind. She just waited and wished. A few seconds past, then a few more. Emma then wished the car would hurry up and hit her already, this waiting was more painful then she thought it would be. As the seconds ticked by Emma got more and more confused. Did the car swerve and miss her? Slowly, Emma open one eye and what she saw shocked her more than her mothers attempted joint suicide. Right in front of her was a tub. Not the car she was staring down just a few second ago, but the tub in Ingrid's bathroom.

Opening her eyes completely, Emma glanced around the room. There wasn't any doubt, she was in Ingrid's bathroom, and what's more the tub was full and steaming. How the hell...?!

A joyful laugh suddenly erupted from beside her; Ingrid, still in her street clothes, was standing there holding Emma's hand with both of hers with a joyful expression.

"You did it!" She beamed, "I knew it! I knew you could do it, Emma!"

Emma was then swept up in a whirling hug, but as soon as she put Ingrid put her down, Emma back as far away from the joyful woman as possible.

"Hold on, what the hell just happened." Emma demanded.

Ingrid just smiled down at her patently, "you've awakened your magic Emma, like I knew you would."

"Ok, whoa. Just hold up a second, you're telling me... That I poofed here? Like Harry friking Potter?"

Ingrid laughed, "well... Yes, essentially. But not like exactly like him. He is after all just fiction."

Emma stared at her foster mom in disbelief. She had to be crazy, that was the only thing that made logical sense. But then she looked around her and all arguments were crushed.

Emma's mind was a whirling mess and she couldn't get it to stop for even a second. This was all just too much for her to take in. Seeing Emma's distress, Ingrid guided the poor girl over to the toilet and sat her down, "I know this is a lot to take in Emma, but you are special. I've know this since the day I met you. You have magic, in a land that has none and you can use it. Not even I can do this." Ingrid explained in a soothing motherly tone, then wrapped the spiraling girl up in her arms.

"I am going to take care of you like I said I would. And also I'll teach you about your magic and how to use it. If you have any questions, you can ask me anything you want. That is if you're feeling up to it."

Emma stared at Ingrid, everything she's told her finally processed through her brain and she smiled, "Oh my god, this is real."

Ingrid nodded enthusiastically at Emma's mounting joy.

"So what can I do? Can I, like, shot fireballs out of my hands?"

Ingrid gave her a sideways look and said in a very cautious tone, "baby steps Emma. You can't learn that kind of magic overnight. It could take years, but yes you if you really worked at it, you could learn to wield fire."

"Awesome!" Was Emma's level headed reply.

"Yes, but I think this had been enough awesome for tonight. We should get some sleep."

"Wait, you can't just leave me hanging like this! I have so many questions!"

Ingrid smiled. "I know you do, but this topic will take a long time to get though and it's already late. Get some sleep and first thing in the morning, we'll talk, OK"

"What about school?" Emma asked, but Ingrid just waved her off.

"I'll call and say you're sick," and just like that, she had tomorrow off.

Ingrid stood up and headed for the door, so Emma followed. They split up and Emma headed for her room. Once she was at her door, however, the voice of her foster brother Kevin rang out behind her.

"Ingrid! Emma's wearing her shoes in the house!" Emma tensed and made a mental note to learn a spell to transform his bed sheets into a hoard of spiders.

Before she could turn around and threaten the insufferable boy, Ingrid appeared from around the corner. Still wearing her boots.

"Oh I know Kevin, Emma wasn't feeling well after the movie. She just made it to the bath room before she got sick."

Emma knew that tone. Ingrid was giving her more sage advice on annoying her foster brother. Feigning a sick groan, Emma stepped closer to Kevin who immediately leapt backward like she was carrying the plague.

"Eww, get away from me!" He exclaimed and shut himself in his room.

Casting a conspiratorial wink at Emma, Ingrid rounded the corner once again, to take off her coat and boots.

Emma quickly retreated into her room so her other siblings didn't bother her, took off her outer wear and flopped on the bed. Tonight had been a whirlwind for the young girl. First she thought Ingrid was trying to kill her, which Emma would definitely bring up tomorrow if only just to give the woman hell for scaring the ever living daylights out of her. Also she found out that magic was real! And she can use it! Emma closed her eyes as exhaustion washed over her. She still half expected to wake up in the morning and find that it was all a dream; but for now, she'd sleep, and pray that the morning light wouldn't dash her hopes like it had so many times before. Her last thoughts of the night were of spider spells and fireballs, but also strangely enough a woman with platinum blonde hair and a dress made of glittering ice.

The icy blonde slowly started to fade as the blackness of sleep crept around the image. Soon the woman was gone and Emma drifted away into sleep.


	2. Magic 101

A/N

 _Sooooo... I kinda forgot to do this last time, so I'm doing it here._

 _Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time, nor any of it's wonderful characters. I'm just fan, sitting in front of a keyboard, asking you to let me play with your world and characters. Also, I don't make any money from this, Like, at all, soooo... yeah. We good?_

 _Also, one more thing I wanted to get out there. This story will have two femslash relationships in it. I'm amending the story description after posting this chapter to get that out there, as I know stories about homosexual couples can make some people uncomforable. If this subject matter offends you, then I advise that you just move along. Your beliefs are you're own, as are mine; so it best we just part ways amicably, for everyone._

 _Now, that that out of the way, enjoy the second chapter of Magic Within._

Chapter 2

A woman sat in her car gaping at the same strip of road she had been for the past hour. She couldn't believe her eyes. What she had just seen was impossible; Not because it was magic, she'd seen that many, many times before, but because magic didn't exist in this world. Apparently, she'd been wrong the whole time because a girl and her mother had vanished before her eyes in a puff of white smoke.

Running a hand through her half-white half-black hair, the woman threw her car into drive and made her way to the nearest motel. After swiping her credit card through a fat impish man's machine and grabbing her key, the woman made her way to her room; completely ignoring the lecherous leers of the fat imp behind her.

I have to find that girl and her mother, She thought frantically, No matter what it takes, I have to find them. Even if I have to... Ugh... take the bus every day for the rest of my life, I have to find that family.

Arriving at her room, the woman shut herself inside, locked the door, and began plotting in earnest. The faces of the two people flashed in her mind and her anger grew. Soon, Snow White and Prince Charming will be sorry they ever crossed me. I'm not done! I'm not done at all! Those fools! Those IDIOTS!

Emma Swan woke to the sound of loud stomping outside her room, which was pretty much the norm in Ingrid's home. It had gotten a bit quieter since Carter left, but Lacy and Kevin were still pretty loud on their own. Not that lacy would ever admit that, though.

Emma contemplated just pulling her pillow over her head and falling back to sleep, when the events of last night finally slammed into her. Snapping her eyes open, Emma sprang out of bed and looked around. There, right where she left them on her dresser, were her hat, coat, boots, and scarf. She stared at the pieces of outerwear. Then chuckled in shear disbelief.

"no friking way." She exclaimed.

It was real, She thought numbly to herself at first, but then grew more and more excited Oh my god! it was actually real. Holy crap! Holy friking crap, magic is real!

More stomping erupted from outside her room, and then the sound of a slamming door echoed through the whole house, breaking Emma out of her excited thoughts. It had to have been Kevin stomping around. Lacy would never have slammed her door, no matter how mad she got. Curious though, Emma made her way over to her door to see what all the noise was about. When she got there though, she heard a quite sob come from the room next to her. That was Kevin's room.

Bewildered and now even more curious, Emma walked over to their shared wall and placed her ear to it. The sobs were still quite, but unmistakable. Emma was shocked. Kevin never cried, not even when you put spiders in his bed. A threat Emma had made good on many times since she'd been here, so she'd know.

As tempted as she was to get some payback by just barging into his room and make fun of him, Emma decided to leave the guy alone. Despite this golden opportunity to get back at her foster brother, she couldn't bring herself to intrude on someone else's weak moment. Lord knows how many times she had to privately let out her emotions, only to have someone come in and make this worse.

Quickly turning away from the wall, Emma grabbed some clothes to get ready or the day. After showering and brushing her teeth, Emma stepped out of the bathroom fresh and clean; however, something seemed different. A group of suitcases were piled just outside Lacy's room. Also, there were voices coming from the living room, sad voices. Emma put the pieces of the puzzle together and immediately she knew, Lacy was leaving.

Emma frowned sadly. Lacy was a nice girl, and Emma really started to like her. If she was leaving, that meant only Kevin would be left, and she hated Kevin. Just as that thought crossed her mind however, Kevin came out of his room. His eyes were red from crying, and he his backpack in his hand. He looked so broken.

Seeing that look on her foster brothers face, Emma's heart ached. To anyone else, he looked to be unfazed by what was happening; but any foster child would know instantly that it was just a mask. He was hurting inside. and now suddenly, the boy didn't seem quite as much of a jerk to the the her.

Deciding to just put away her petty grudge for once, Emma moved to try and comfort the boy. She might not ever grow to like him, but she knew the pain of being sent away. So she did the what she wished someone would have done for her, and tried to comfort him.

She placed a hand on his shoulder, and Kevin just stood there as still as a tree. Then he turned to her and said, "I hope you'll happy with your new family," and walked off.

Feeling angry at Ingrid for causing the boy so much pain, Emma stomped into the living room were a pair of social workers were speaking to her.

"You're giving them away!" Emma shouted.

"Emma, this is for the best," Ingrid tried to say, but Emma was in one of her stubbornly angry moods.

"You can't just abandon them!" She argued, "You told me know what it feels like to be unwanted! Or was everything you told me just a lie!"

Ingrid walked over to Emma and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, "Emma, please understand. I just want us to be a family. I want to devote as much time as I can to you. I can't take care of them and still get to know you better."

"Yeah, but-"

"I have a friend that lives in New York. I called her and and she said she'd take them in. She'll take good care of them, I promise you. Also when I called, she told me that she was looking to adopt two children, one boy and one girl."

Emma's eyes widened at that and she heard two gasps from behind her.

Smiling down at Emma, Ingrid rested her other hand on her shoulder. "I might not be able to take care of them as I'd like anymore, but I won't see them off without one last token of my affection," She then turned to the two kids standing behind her.

"Trust me you two, Freya is an nice woman. She's strict, but she's fair. If you put in the effort, you two will most definitely become part of her family."

Taking the two shocked children into her arms one last time, Ingrid gave them each a kiss on the forehead and said, "good bye you two. I hope you will have a wonderful life with Freya. I just sorry I couldn't be that for you."

In the next few minutes, Lacy and Kevin, with their things in hand, were out the door; but not before Kevin stopped and turned back to Emma. Before she could react, he sprang forward wrapped his arms around her and said "Thanks for sticking up for me."

"Don't mention it." Emma said, through the very awkward hug.

Finally releasing her, Kevin stepped back and began shifting on his feet nervously.

"Hey, listen," he mumbled awkwardly, "I know I've been... ummm... well, kind of a..."

"A jerk," Emma supplied, but with none of the malice she once had.

"Yeah. Yeah, I was a real jerk, so I just wanna say I'm sorry and I hope you can forgive me."

Emma smiled at her fellow foster child. This time it was her that pulled Kevin into a hug.

"Yeah well, we all deal with this our own way. I wasn't the most fun girl to be around either," Emma said before releasing him. Not excusing his actions, but acknowledging they both had some issues.

Stepping back, Emma glanced at Lacy who was standing beside the car.

"You know, she's gonna be your real sister now." She said nodding towards the girl, "that means you gotta be her real brother. So look after her, alright."

Kevin smiled, "yeah, I will."

And with that, Kevin made his way to the car. The two got in and the car pulled out of the driveway. Emma had seen this sight many times in her life, but instead of crushing sadness, Emma watched as the car turned the corner and disapreared with hope for their future.

Walking back into the living room, Emma saw Ingrid was sitting on the couch with two cups of freshly prepared Hot Cocoa and holding one out for her to take.

"You really think they'll be alright?" Emma asked, grabbing the chocolate beverage.

"I think they will," Ingrid said, smiling wistfully, "Freya always wanted children. When I called and told her about Kevin and Lacy, she was more than happy to take them in. The rest is in their hands now, but thanks to your little talk with Kevin, I think they'll be just fine."

Emma smiled. It felt good making a difference. She just hoped Ingrid was right and Kevin didn't reverted back to his old jerky ways. Good thing she told Lacy about her secret spidery weapon before she left.

"So... you gave them away because of my magic, didn't you?" Emma asked, deciding to just get right to the point. She was sure last night wasn't a dream, but she still needed verbal confirmation from Ingrid.

"Yes," she said in a sad tone, "it would have been... difficult to teach you about your magic if we constantly had to worry about them finding out. As much as I love those two, they just wouldn't understand. It's better this way."

Accepting Ingrid's explanation, Emma decided to switch gears. It was magic time.

"So... magic?"

"Yes, Emma" Ingrid chuckled, "its time. Asked me anything you want."

"Ok, first thing I wanna know is, how do you use it? I mean the last time... Well, actually the last two times I used it, I didn't do it on purpose."

"Well, that question is a bit difficult to answer without a long explanation. Essentially though, your Will and Desire is what drives most magic. Once you awaken it, and you know what it feels like to use it, you can just simply Will things into being. Not all magic works like this though; some things require actual spells to work, and somethings don't even require one to have magic to work, like enchanted items. The enchantment, provide all the magic it needs to function; but you won't be at the level where you need to worry about that for quite a while. Most, if not all practitioners of magic, start small by first learning how their magic feels inside them and building up their skills from there."

Placing her half-full cup of cocoa on the table, Ingrid leaned towards Emma and took her cup from her as well, then placed it next to hers.

"Let's try something simple, use your magic to get your cup from the table, without grabbing mine as well."

"Ok, but how do I do that?" Emma asked.

"Trust your instincts Emma, that's how you use your magic. Look inward and feel the magic there, then just concentrate on the cup. Your Will and Desire should do the rest."

Emma nodded, then focused on her cup. She tried to remember what her magic felt like. When she was staring down that car, she was way to scared to really remember much of what she was feeling, except pure terror; But, as she stared at the cup, this strange tingle suddenly bloomed within her chest. The memory of that exact same feeling occurring just before the car was about to hit her, surfaced in her mind. Was that her magic?

Deciding to try it, Emma put all her focus on her cup of cocoa, blocking out all other things. She thought about how much she wanted that steaming cup chocolate; how much she absolutely needed it. How thirsty she was without that cup, and how cold she would be if it wasn't in her hands right this second. Ingird said that Will and Desire were the key to using magic, so Emma willed and desired that cup of chocolately goodness with all her might.

The tingle in her chest started churn more violently and then suddenly it raced all throughout her body; then in a flash of white, the cup suddenly disappeared and just as suddenly it reapeared gripped firmly in her hands.

Emma let out a laugh of pure delight and so did Ingrid.

"That's amazing, Emma! You got it on the first try! You're an astonishingly fast learner!" Ingrid beamed.

"Maybe I just have an amazing teacher." Emma replied back with a cheeky grin.

Ingrid shook her head, "No, its a testament to your power, Emma. Even I couldn't get that on my first try. Not many can."

Ingrids remark brought up another question Emma been meaning to ask.

"Can you use magic, Ingrid?" Emma asked.

Ingrid turned a bit somber, "somewhat." Ingrid answered. Leaning forward, Ingrid touched Emma's cup and almost immediately, it lost all its heat. Emma almost dropped the cold cup in shock.

"Whoa, what'd you do?" she asked absolutely astonished.

"Ice magic. Though that's merely a sliver of what I was able to do when I lived in Arendale."

"Arendale?"

"It's where I'm from." Ingrid replied, "You see Emma, I'm not originally from this world. I come from a land that's separate from this one. People here would call it a different dimension. In my land, magic is common and people can learn to use it to achieve extraordinary things."

Emma took in this information, but could barely fathom it. Her soon-to-be-mother was an inter-dimemsional being from a world with magic. Even with the knowledge that magic was real, this still completely blew her mind.

"Wow, thats... ummm"

"A lot to take in, I know; but you don't have to worry about that, Emma. Arendale is a long way from here, and I left it behind me a long time ago."

A shadow of pain passed over Ingrid's face as she spoke. Her eyes looked haunted by whatever memory she was currently reliving. Emma decided it was best to move on and spare her foster mom anymore pain.

She decided to ask another question that was on her mind since last night.

"Ok, one more thing. I know things worked out there in the end, but I gotta ask: Why the hell would you drag me out in front of that car? What if I wasn't able to use my magic? How did you know you weren't killing just us?"

Ingrid looked pained by her words, and quickly took Emma's hand into her own, "Emma, just let me say that I am so sorry I had to do that. I never wanted you to feel that afraid, least of all because of me, but believe me when I say that it was necessary. When I lived in Arendale, I had a traumatic experience that awakened my magic, and I believed the same thing would happen for you. I'd seen you magic help you before, like at the Arcade, so I had no doubt it would step in and save you from danger.

Emma saw Ingrid's reasoning, and she had to admit it made in sense in a weird sort of way. Her magic, up until now, had worked like some sort of fight or flight response. Looking back on her life, Emma began to see many strange events that were explained away perfectly with magic. Like one time in 4th grade, a bully from school pushed her down in the halls. In her rage, Emma had wished he could feel what it was like to be pushed down; and then, all of a sudden, he slipped and fell face first into a garbage can. Emma couldn't for the life of her, figure out how that boy managed to slip. The floor wasn't wet, and there was nothing there to trip him, so maybe she was using her magic long before now and just didn't know it.

"Ok," Emma finally spoke, "I see why you did it; but don't ever do something like that again, you hear me?"

Ingrid, her eyes full of tears, sprang up and wrapped Emma up in her arms, "You have my word, sweetie. Never again."

Emma smiled and sank into Ingrid's hug. Her chest was filled to the brim with all sorts of warm, fuzzy feelings. If this was what having a family felt like than it was well worth the wait.

"Good," Emma said sighed contently, and the two fell into a comfortable silence.

"... ... ... So, what else can you teach me about magic?"

Ingrid barked out a laugh at the way she just asked, and then she began teaching Emma all she knew about magic.

A dark haired girl, was sitting next to her boyfriend, staring at the screen of the laptop he gave her a few weeks ago. Two of her boyfriend's friends came into the room acting all excited.

"Hey man, check it. We just found this juicy place down the street. We should hit it before it closes." One of them said.

The girl ignored the three boys' conversation, she was way to preoccupied with the information she'd just learned from he computer.

"What do they got?" The girl's boyfriend asked.

"A lot. We can probably live of it for whole a month."

"Sweet," the boyfriend said, then he turned to the girl and smirked, "you wanna come with?"

The girl finally looked up from her computer screen. Only really getting the gist of the conversation, she looked indecisive for a moment, but ultimately shrugged her shoulders and said, "yeah sure, why not?"

As the group got up to go, the black haired girl took one last look at her computer screen. On it, was a picture of her one time best friend, Emma Swan and her address. After this snack run, she was going to find her and beg for her forgiveness. That girl had touched her soul, as corny as that sounded to her. You don't let that kind of friendship get away. Not without a fight.

"Lily, you coming?" Her boyfriends voice called.

"Yeah, coming."

She shut the laptop and headed after him. Smiling for the first time since that day. The day she had gained, but also lost, her truest friend.

Meanwhile, in a small down in the middle of nowhere, another dark haired woman had everything she ever wanted, revenge, power and a long eternal life. But the one thing she didn't have but secretly wanted, was a family. Though she had yet to figure that out. So she all she could do was sit in her mansion, in misery and in pain, waiting; oblivious to the family that she always wanted, drawing ever closer to her quaint little town.


	3. Magic Misadventures

Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon a Time, or any of its characters. Why on earth would you thing that? That's ridiculous, ha ha... oh wait... oh you didn't think that? Well then... ummm ... carry on.

Chapter 3

Emma Swan couldn't believe the turn her life had taken since she'd learned about magic. Everything just seemed so surreal to her now. Magic was real and only she and Ingrid knew about it. The two of them had just spent all of the last two days talking about it and all the things it can do, for gods sake. One thing Emma knew for sure, was that she would never look at the world the same way again. She wondered if this was what Harry Potter would have felt like if he were real.

Sitting up in her bed, having just woke up, Emma glanced around her room listing for the sounds of stomping feet. She still half expected to wake up one morning find that it was all an elaborate dream and she would hear Kevin and Lacy stomping around in the hallway, but that didn't happen. Emma got out of bed to start the day.

Stepping into the tub, Emma turned on the faucet and then the shower. The hot spay washed over her and she felt content. This was her little routine, one she felt great doing. Emma was never really able to get into a routine before, why bother when you would be gone in a month, tops. Not that she was living with Ingrid, she started doing things she never really thought about before, like decorating her room. Right now she only had one poster up and it was of her favourite singer Chirstina Aguilara, but it was a start. It felt nice to put something up knowing you wouldn't have to take it down in a week or so. It's always the small things you take for granted. A fact emma was rapidly becoming aware of.

Emma started washing her body, smiling the whole time. When she picked up the shampoo to wash her hair, though, she found it was empty.

"Crap," she muttered under her breath.

Emma remembered ingrid kept some more in the cupboard under the sink, so she threw back the shower curtain and was about to get out, but then she stopped. This was a good time to test out what she learned the past two days.

Clearing her mind, Emma locked her eyes on the closed cupboard. At first she didn't know what to do. Up until now, Emma only managed to summon things she could actually see. She hadn't tried it with something she couldn't. This didn't deter her though. She pictured the bottle of shampoo in her mind then reached out with her magic. With a strange tingle racing down and out her hands, Emma guided her magic to the shampoo bottle within the cupboards. Then she felt something drop into her palm. A bottle of Aussie shampoo had just appeared in her hands.

Beaming with pride, Emma pumped her hand holding the shampoo bottle into the air like a trophy.

"You're a witch, Emma," she quipped, and then proceeded to wash her hair.

After finishing that, Emma got out of the shower and continued her little routine, by brushing her teeth and hair, then putting on a outfit she had ready since last night. This was yet another thing she never did before, care about her clothes. Mostly she wore whatever was clean, but now she had whole closet to fill up. Emma made a mental note to ask Ingrid if she would take her to get some new clothes. Her current ones were starting to fade. She just hoped she could ask for that sort of thing of her yet.

Walking into the living room, fresh and clean, Emma found Ingrid in kitchen making breakfast.

"Good morning," Emma called to her happily.

"Emma, good morning! Did you sleep well?"

"Like a baby,"

Emma sat down on the couch and suddenly found another way of testing her powers. The remote was all the way on the other end of the coffee table, and she just sat down. How annoying. Thankfully, there was an easy fix to this horrible catastrophe. Emma raised her hand and poured her magic into her hands, and directed it to the remote. After moving the shampoo bottle so easily, Emma was able to summon the remote into her hands with absolutely no trouble. With her prize in hand, Emma started flipping through channels.

"You're getting good at that," Ingrid said, walking into the living room.

"Yeah, this is the second time I did it with no troubles." Emma replied, beaming with pride.

"That's great, but keep practicing. The goal is for it to become second nature to you."

"Don't worry, I got this," emma beamed confidently.

"I'm sure you do. But just be careful though, Emma. You're new at this, so you don't know all the dangers using magic possesses. One thing absolutely you have to know, is that magic always comes with a price."

"A price?" Emma parroted in confusion.

"Yes. When you use magic, there is always a price attached. Though most times, its just a bit of magical energy, but when you start to get into the bigger stuff, the price you must pay gets more steep and the consequences can be very dire."

Emma took in ingrids words, and frowned, "what kind of consequences?"

Ingrid looked Emma straight in the eye, "many lives have been ruin in the pursuit of magic, friendships torn apart, families..." Ingrid eyes suddenly looked haunted. "Families destroyed."

Emma had seen this look on her face before when she tried to get Ingrid to talk about Arendelle. Emma was sure Ingrid was telling her this from experience.

"You lost someone to magic, didn't you?" Emma asked.

Ingrid looked her right in the eyes and she knew she hit the nail on the head, "my sisters." She said with bearly a whisper. A lone tear fell down her cheek, but Ingrid quickly wiped it away, "Emma, believe me when I say that magic can be very dangerous. You may think you know the consequences and are ready to accept them, but where magic is involved, you can never assume anything. I'll help you whenever I can to steer you clear of the more dangerous magics, but you must still be wary. Magic is not something to be taken lightly."

Just as Ingrid finished speaking, the timer on the stove beeped. Turning away Ingrid left to finish making breakfast and Emma was left thinking about what her foster mom just told her. She believed Ingrid when she said that magic can cost you everything, even your family. Ingrid all but told her that she did something involving magic. Something that drove her sisters away, or worse, cost them their lives and, that caused her to runaway to Earth; or as she calls it, a land without magic. If you lost your family to magic, it made sense to Emma that you would want to go somewhere where it didn't exist naturally. One thing that Emma couldn't figure out, though, was that if Ingrid lost everything to magic, why was she so adement about teaching it to her?

After finishing up breakfast, Emma got ready to go to school, but she whined about it though, "I wanna stay home and practice magic," She begged Ingrid, pouting.

"As much as I'd love to teach you some more, you still have to go to school. If you miss to many days, they might get suspicious, and that wouldn't look very good to the adoption agency." Ingrid explained and all of Emma's protests were quelled. They were still waiting for the agency to process the paperwork for Ingrid to adopt her. Two whole weeks was already an agonizingly long time to wait for Emma, but it was well worth it. She could behave for a few more weeks, even if that meant missing out on magic 101 for half the day.

"Alright, alright, I get it." She sighed. Ingrid wrapped her up in a hug and kissed her forehead.

"Have a good day, sweetie," she said.

Beaming with happiness, Emma practically skipped out the door, to the bus. Yep, definitely worth the wait, if I get more of that.

Richfield high was and alright school. Certainly better than some of the other schools Emma had been, but it still had its jerks. One such jerk was Malcom Tanners. Emma wasn't exactly sure what she did, but somehow she had managed to piss the guy off one time and now he hated her guts; hated her guts so much, in fact, that he actually went out of his way just to pick on her, and today was no eception.

Emma was gathering some books out of her locker for English class when she was violently shoved to the ground by Malcom acting like he was just passing by.

"Watch where you're going klutz!" He spat, and kept on walking.

Emma knelt on the floor seething. She looked around for a teacher, but true to form, there were none in the hall. That's how Malcom operated. He'd hover over you until your alone, strike, and then run away. Ironically enough, we was also one of the school football teams linebackers.

Emma couldn't go to any of the teachers about him because they were never around when Malcom did anything, and she had no proof. This infuriated Emma to no end. Just once, she wished she could get back at him somehow.

Emma was so wrapped up in her anger, she didn't notice the pulsing white magic radiating from her hands, that is until it suddenly shot forward and stuck Malcom in the back, sending him crashing into a group of lockers.

For a moment, Emma panicked. She looked around her, expecting to see every student in the hall staring at her with wide eyes, but strangely, no one was. No one even so much as glanced in her direction. Confused, but also relieved, Emma turned back to Malcom and watched with amusement as he whirled around trying to find who pushed him. He looked towards Emma for a few seconds, apparently pegging her as the prime suspect, but she was still kneeling on the ground where he left her, so appeared to dismiss the idea. After a few more seconds, he walked away completely.

Smirking to herself, Emma picked up the books she dropped and started jogging to English class. A plan for revenge was forming in her mind, and she was very anxious to execute it. When she got to class, she sat down in the aisle where she knew Malcom would walked down, and waited.

As the minutes ticked by, Emma could feel her magic building up in her fingertips, anticipating her next spell. It actually felt pretty good. No, better than good actually, it felt awesome. When her target finally arrived, Emma's magic seemed about ready to burst and she loved it.

Malcom began his walk to his desk. Emma waited until he was a few desks ahead of hers, then let the magic flow out of her hands and directed it right in front his legs. Using her anger and desire for revenge, Emma cast a simple, but weak, barrier spell right in front of Malcom's legs. His fall was spectacular. He tried fumbleing for the desk to stop his fall, but all he succeeded in doing was dragging it along with him.

Emma grinned down at the floundering boy, feeling very pleased with herself. In fact she felt down right euphoric. Unable to resist rubbing salt in the wound, Emma leaned over him from her seat and looked him straight in the eyes.

"You should watch were you step, Malcom." She taunted in a sickly sweet voice, "Wouldn't want people calling you a klutz now, would you?"

Malcom glared up at Emma with rage, and shoved the desk off himself. Getting up, the linebacker towered over Emma clenching his hands into fists. It was only then at Emma realized that she was taunting a guy that outweighed her in just pure muscle. Just as Emma was thinking the guy might actually hit her, the teacher walked in and everyone started taking their seats.

Malcom gave her one last glare and growled, "this isn't over Swan." And walked away.

To Emma's dismay, he sat down right behind her and was as just silent. All through out class, though, she could feel his glare on the back of her neck. As she sat there, Emma couldn't help but recall Ingrid's warning before breakfast. "All magic comes with a price," she just hoped that in this case, the price wasn't a black eye.

Emma was sitting in the bleachers, watching the cheerleaders practice. For the first time in her life, she was capable of joining a sports team. Like her morning routine at home, Emma wanted some sort of sign she was here to stay at school, hence, joining a sports team. But with her hopping between foster homes her whole life, and never believing it would end, she never really considered what kind of sport she would like to do if she could. She was never really the girly type, but cheerleading was the first thing that popped into her mind when she thought of sports for girls. It was a cliche for a reason, after all.

After sitting in on their practice, Emma found she actually liked watching cheerleading. The flips and kicks and dancing all looked amazing to her, but also she kind of already knew she wouldn't like to actually do those things. She just wasn't flexible enough. Also, having to wear the miniskirt and tank-top was definitely a deal breaker, so cheerleading was a no go. But that didn't mean she couldn't still watch. She sat through the rest of practice, enjoying herself quite a bit. Once they were done most of the girls went into the change rooms to wash off the sweet and dirt from practice.

Emma briefly wondered what it must be like to have to shower in front of a whole squad of girls. Being naked in front of other people, especially people you know, must be such a uncomfortable experience, Emma thought. Then she realized that if she were to join a sports team, she might actually have to do just that. The thought brought a sudden bit to redness to her cheeks, and quickly she shoved that thought away. Being naked while also seeing other girls naked, even if it was just to shower, would be... it would just be too uncomfortable for her. Emma quickly gather her things and got up to leave the practice field.

She started for the buses to go home, Ingrid was making fried potatoes and ham for dinner, he all time favourite meal, no way was she missing that. Emma had just rounded the bleachers practically drooling with hunger, when suddenly she was face to face with the last person she wanted to see, Malcom.

"Told you we weren't done." He sneered.

Emma froze and then backed up unconsciously. That's when she saw the other two boys with him. Fear bubbled up her her stomach, and her heart started beating fast.

"Oh my god, seriously? Why are you always on my case, Malcom?" Emma demanded, trying to cover the fear that was now starting to creep up into her chest. Emma subtly glanced around her, and lone behold, they were alone.

"Because I can," Malcom answered her with a sadistic smirk, "because you make it so easy. And because I. Don't. Like. You. Need anything other reasons?"

Emma swallowed past the lump that was forming in her throat. _This guy is a friking sociopath!_

Before Emma could think to run in the other direction as fast as she could, Malcom's two cronies, rushed forward and grabbed her both her arms.

"Hey! Let go!" Emma shouted, but they merrily ingnored her and started dragging Emma into a nearby building that she quickly realized was the boys change room.

Now completely terrified, Emma struggled hard against the three football players grips, "let go of me! Help! Someone! Let go you bastards!"

Emma didn't stand a chance of out muscling three teenaged boys on the football team. She needed her magic. Before she could reach for it though, the boys tossed her through the open door of the boys change room where she landed on her knees. Emma managed to get back up and turned back towards the door. Malcom was right there blocking it with his body.

"No where to run," he smirked. That smirk though, sent a cold shiver down her spine. She wanted him as far away from her as possible.

Thinking quickly, Emma reached for her magic and guided it to the door.

Using everything she had she pushed the door closed right on Malcom's stupid little face and held it there. A howl of pain came from outside, along with exclamations of, "what the hell just happened?" And, "dude, are you alright?"

Malcom's groans answered one of those questions; he definitely was not alright. Emma then heard the door knob rattling and the two boys trying to body chuck their way in, but Emma's magic managed to hold them off.

"Dude, it's not opening. I think it's stuck." One guy said after finally giving up.

"Forget about her, just lock the door." Malcom said, who apparently had recovered somewhat; But the strange nasally sound to his voice told Emma she probably broke his nose.

"You hear that Swan?" Malcom shouted throught he door, "Coach gave me the key so I could lock up while he gets ready for his date. Being the generous guy I am, I couldnt just say no." Emma felt sick to her stomach. These sickos fucking planed this! Who knows what else they planned if she hadn't locked them out.

"You're gonna be here all fucking weekend," Malcom continued to rant, "I hope you brought some snacks."

Emma heard the faint sound of the door lock clicking into place.

"See you on Monday swan. If I remember to come by, that is," the group of boys started laughing, getting more fainter the further they got from the door.

"ASSHOOOOOLES!!!" Emma screamed in rage. The faint laughter got louder for a bit and that just made Emma even angrier.

She ran up started pounding on the door screaming every curse word she knew and then some, until she couldn't hear them anymore. Huffing and puffing, Emma slid her back down the door and sighed heavily. Then she looked around and realized it was actually pitch black all around her.

"Great, just great." Emma muttered.

She looked around for a light switch, but it was way to dark. She couldn't see the tip of her nose let alone a light switch. Getting up off the floor, Emma started feeling her way around the walls, hoping to get lucky and stumble across it; But The only thing she got for her trouble though was four stubbed toes, three bumped elbows, two head on collisions into walls, and a partridge in a pear tree. Finally giving up, Emma slumped against the nearest wall, after she smacked her head off of it, of course.

And as if this whole situation couldn't possibly get any worse, Emma's stomach was rumbling, and all she could think about was the fried potatoes and ham he wouldn't get to eat. Sighing, Emma prepared herself for a very long two days.

"I am never using magic for revenge again," she vowed and then began to count bottles.

"One hundred bottles of beer on the wall, one hundred bottle of beer take one down pass it around, nintey-nine bottles of beer on the wall,"

100 bottles of beer, and 48 green and speckled frogs latter, Emma gave up on counting games.

"God, I wish ingrid had taught me how to teleport." She muttered to herself.

As it was, Emma's limited pool of spells wouldn't be all that helpful. The only real spell she had down was the summoning spell and unless she could see the object she wanted to summon, or knew exactly what it looked like and where it was, she couldn't use it. Her telekinesis that she just discovered seemed like a fluke adrenaline like her first teleportation. but even so, she doubted even magic could break down a locked steel door. So magic would be not help here.

Emma sighed again, "so hungry... so bored... I just wanna go home,"

Emma slumped down onto her side, using her hands and a pillow.

"I hope Ingrid's not too worried, about me," Emma said to herself out loud, "oh, who am I kidding, she's probably already got over a dozen search parties and two rescue helicopters scouring the city for me already. Hmmm, what are the odds they'd look inside a locked boys change room? Probably not that great... And now I'm talking to myself. Great."

Emma sighed yet again. Thinking about Ingrid just made her anxious, she didn't want her to worry about her. But she knew that's exactly what she'd be doing as soon as she found out she wasn't on the bus. She couldn't imagine being a mother and not having your child come home for a two whole days. She just wished there was a way to call her and tell her she was alright. She had heard about those new cell phones that can call anywhere without being connected to the ground. Man one of those would be useful right about now.

"But then again, once I learn teleporting, I wouldn't need it," Emma muttered.

It that sentence that suddenly had her remembering a conversation she had with Ingrid last night They had been talking about all the different kinds of spells she would teach her, and one thing Ingrid said though stood out above the all the rest, "teleporting is a very complicated spell to learn, let alone master. To use it, one must have a clear picture of where they want to go, see themselves there in that instant, and have the desire to be there. Not only that it also requires one to learn how to project their magic to their destination. This is not an easy skill to master."

"Well, I got one part down. I really want to be home right now." Emma spoke to herself once again. Emma remembered an article she once read in a magazine about people being exposed to sensory deprivation experiments and how they had to stop it because the participants were slowly going crazy. "Ok, now I really want to be home right now."

Deciding it was worth a shot, if only for the sake of her sanity, Emma sat up and crossed her legs. She poured her magic into her hands and began to think about home.

"Come on, Emma, come on. You can do this. There's no place like home. There's no place like home"

Emma thought about the counter in the kitchen where her and ingrid had their morning breakfast and talked about whatever little thing that was on their mind. Then she thought about her bedroom and the first poster she put on its walls. She saw her poster of Christina Aguilera clear as day in her mind. She pictured herself sitting on her bed looking at the poster, ready to come out and eat a hearty dinner of fried potatoes and pigs butt that, Ingrid prepared for her. Emma felt her magic start to tingle all over her body, and a small part of it suddenly shot out of her, racing out towards home. The feeling got more and more intense the close the blast of magic got to home. She could feel it when her magic finally arrived. It was a strange feeling, but Emma didn't have time to ponder it. She swiped her hands up the length of her body and suddenly she felt weightless. When the feeling passed a few seconds latter, Emma slowly opened her eyes. On the wall in front of her, was Christina Aguilera's gorgeous face staring back at her.

Emma laughed in disbelief, "oh my god!" She exclaimed excitedly, "I can't believe it, I actually did it!"

Emma sprang off her bed and ran out the door to the kitchen. Half way there, Emma heard Ingrid shouting to someone on the phone.

"I told you, she should have been back an hour ago!" Ingrid sounded frantic, "I don't care what your records say, Emma would never have run away, not from me! I'm going to be adopting her soon, she'd have no reason to... My foster daughter is missing, I will not calm down!"

It was then, that Emma stepped into the kitchen. Ingrid was pacing around with looking about as frantic as she sounded, "I'm tellinng you she should have been on that bus, she's miss-" Emma cleared her thoat loudly.

Ingrid took one look at Emma and immediately the not so helpful police officer was forgotten, "Emma!" She exclaimed in relief and shot forward to embrace her.

"Wow, you really were close to sending out the coppers weren't you," Emma joked.

"Where were you Emma? I was worried sick," Ingrid asked frantically petting her hair.

"This kid from school locked me in the boys change room." Emma explained, "it took me a while to get out."

"Are you ok?" Ingrid said stroking Emma's hair soothingly, it was a bit weird for Emma, but she didn't really mind. most kids acted all embarrassed when their moms did this kind of thing to them, but she actually thought it felt pretty nice to be fussed on. _Just another one those things you take for granted, I guess._

"Yeah, I'm fine." Emma assured Ingrid.

"Ok, Good." Ingrid sighed in relief, "So, how did you get home?"

"Oh, I teleported," Emma answered trying to sound nonchalant.

"You... you teleported?" The look on ingrids face was priceless. Emma had to bit her lip to keep from bursting into laughter.

"Yep, so what's for dinner?" Emma replied.

Ingrid opened and closed her mouth several times like a fish. It was right then that Emma lost the battle to hold in her laughter. While Emma lost her composure, Ingrid just smiled and said, "you are just full of surprises, aren't you Emma."

Emma just flashed a goofy smile in response.

Laying in bed, Ingrid reflected on Emma's little misadventure. She swore that that boy would pay for scaring Emma. But for now though, vengeance was the furthest thing from her mind. She had been absolutely frantic when Emma didn't come home when she was supposed to. Ever since she found her she had been waiting for the inevitable. The moment where she would lose Emma. She knew it had to happen eventually because of a small scroll currently stored in her safe. The apprentice had told her that when the time was right, it would lead her to Emma. Since she already had Emma with her, Ingrid had assumed she would lose her somehow. She had been so close to running into her room and retrieving the scroll to go find her.

Then Emma walked into the kitchen, safe and sound. It was one of the most wonderful moments of her life, seeing Emma there, when she thought she'd lost her. It made her realize just how much she loved Emma. Not just because she was destined to be her sister, but because of how much Emma cared for her, as well. She knew she would be devastated when the time finally came for her to lose her. Ingrid thought she was prepared for that, but this incident showed her otherwise.

Preparing dinner had been a welcome distraction for Ingrid, but seeing Emma enthusiastically digging into her food, and smiling happily as she told her about teleporting, made her heart clench. Losing this was way to cruel a joke for fate to play on her. Temping her with happiness, only to snatch it away and leave her in the dark once again. She began to wonder if her pain would ever really end. Time and time again, she had been made the fool of fates cruel jokes. First she was cursed with her terrible ice powers that made her the murder of... of her dear sweet Helga. Then she finds Elsa, who suffers from the same curse as she does, who welcomes her into her home, only to have her reject her because of that sister of her's; a sister that could never truely understand her, let alone love her. Now once again, fate tempts her with the promise of acceptance and happiness, how long before it decides to rip Emma away from her as well.

Ingird went to bed that night with a dull feeling of dread.

"Oh Emma, please don't ever leave me." She whispered into the dark, "don't let fate turn you against me as well."

Ingrid drifted off to sleep, escaping her waking nightmare, and hopped right into a regular nightmare; where her dreams and broken psyche toy with her anew; Where Emma despised her and would shout the one word she had always been called by others, "Monster!"

Meanwhile, 71 miles away in Mantako, another girl sat wallowing as her life fell apart around her. Lily was screwed; she knew that already, but when she found herself sitting in a gutter down some random alley, it finally hit her just how screwed she really was. She had no food, no shelter and now she was a fugitive from the law.

It all just started out so normal. She was going into the convenient store to pick up a some Dorito's, then next thing she knows, her boyfriend is tossing her a gun and telling her to watch the door.

Freaked out and panicking, Lily did as she was told, but it wasn't what she wanted to do. She wanted to flee; She wanted to go straight to the cops and tell them she wasn't part of their plan; to finger the real culprits and do the right thing for once, but something inside of her stopped her. It always stopped her. This thing inside her, Lily didn't know what it was, or if it was even real, but she knew was there, something dark, something villianous. This darkness, as she'd taken to calling it, was once again messing up her life. She kept telling herself to go to the police and explain what happened, but she didn't move. She didn't do anything. She just sat there in the gutter, feeling alone, trapped, and beyond helpless.

A tear slipped down her cheek, and she wanted to scream in frusteration.

 _Why? Why can't I ever do anything right?!_ Lily thought as her tears turned into full on sobs, _Why does everything I do always turn out so wrong?! Why is this happening to me?! I can't stop this! I can't- I can't-! Someone, please help me!_

Drawing her knees up to her chest, Lily continued to cry with dispair. She wouldn't move from that position for entire night. Even as storm clouds rolled in and the skies opened up, pouring gallons of water onto her, she didn't move. She didn't hear the thunder or see the lightning. All she felt was a sheet of darkness surrounding her, drawing her in, suffocating her.

On the other side of the alley, a strange old man in red robes was watching the girl's breakdown with great sorrow, but also, a small amount of hope.

 _Tomorrow morning the skies will begin to clear, and a new chapter will begin in that young girls life._ The man thought to himself.

Looking up at the sky that an hour ago, had shown no sight of rain and he chuckled humourlessly, "Fate certainly does love its metaphors"

Turning away from the painful scene playing out before him, a scene he was partially responsible for causing, the old man walked away and through a random door to a random location, waiting for the dawn.


	4. Magic Misused

Disclaimer: Still don't own Once Upon a Time and it's characters. Don't know why anyone would think that would change, but still, better safe than sorry right?

Chapter 4

Mr. Golds Pawnshop may look like an unassuming little shop to the denizens of Storybrooke, Maine, but inside was a treasure trove of magical items. Most looked like useless little trinkets. Others looked like mere novelty items, like the crystal ball sitting in the back room.

That particular item, however, was a lot more than it appeared to be, even in a shop full of magical relics. Rumplestilskin had charmed it to flash a warning if the future he banked all his chips on was in danger of being flung off course, and right now, it was lighting up like a disco ball. It started up three days ago, and hadn't let up since. Someone or something, had changed the future irrevocably and was still doing so.

Rumplestilskin was livid. He didn't accomplish all he had, and crossed dimensions, just to have it all fall apart just as he neared the finish line. He had to get a handle on this, but there was very little he could actually do. The future was far to turbulent at the moment. He couldn't make any plans because when he tried, the future would suddenly lurch onto another path and render those plans useless once again.

So the great and powerful Dark One, in all his power and glory, capable of reshaping the world as he saw fit, was left waiting for some unseen, unnamed force to stop altering things enough to gain some kind of clarity.

Thankfully though, after three days of waiting, and searching the crystal ball for answers, one aspect of the future began to solidify; the Dark Curse could still be broken, and Emma was still the one to do it, though, the two possible paths to this outcome were still up for debate. The Dark One just couldn't get an accurate read on it yet. One thing he could gleam form those two paths, though, was that one of them required another girl present with Emma to come to pass. Deciding it was best to have the both paths be possible, the Dark One made a note to get that girl to Storybrooke along with Emma Swan. He couldn't see the new girl clearly, but he could tell the girl had black hair and she would be very important to Emma, and that was all he really needed.

This, unfortunately for him, was all that the future was certian about. The rest was a mess of altered fates and jumbled destinies, so Rumplestilskin replaced the crystal orb back on its shelf and began to plot. He needed someone to get Emma to Storybrooke, someone on the outside. Thankfully, he knew just to two villianesses for the job. Sitting down in a very neglected computer chair, he began composing two letters.

"Cruella de vil, thought you heard the last of me did you?" the Dark One spoke as he wrote. He smiled evily. Things were finally starting to get back on track.

 _Soon, my son would be back were he belongs, right by my side._

-0-0-0-0-

Emma stared at the price tag on the tank top she'd been looking at, "are you sure I can even own something this expensive?" She asked ingrid who was currently picking through a rack of jeans.

"Of course, Emma. If you're going to be living with me you'll need more than those faded clothes you've been wearing,"

Emma looked down at her plain red t-shirt. It had definitely seen better days. The colour was pretty faded and it even had a few small stains on the front that even a washing machine couldn't get out.

"Alright, just so you know, you asked for this," Emma remarked, washing her hands of all blame for the bill. Emma walked around looking at all the different clothing options. She was suprised at how many different kinds of tops there were. Things like regular t-shirts to tank tops, to the more stylish kinds like halter tops, crop tops and even tops that looked more like bras than shirts. Emma steered clear of the more... risqué articals of clothing and pick out a few tank tops, t-shirts and jeans. She did pick out a few modest halter tops and even one tank that just bearly skirted the lines of modesty. She also picked out a few shorts. Nothing to short, but still pretty far above the knee. After trying on her the more revealing clothing in the change room Emma felt strangely liberated. She always wore stuff like long sleeve plad shirts and featureless tshirts and jeans, so seeing herself in the mirror in looking, for want of a bettter word, attractive. It really threw the girl off.

They two then moved on to look at the winter items, and that's she saw the greatest artical of clothing to ever grace the earth. Sitting on the bust of a legless mannequin, was a red leather jacket with a folded collar and two pockets located just above the breasts. Emma practically ran over another shopper to get a better look. It looked like something you'd see on a tough girl who recently got out of prison and Emma loved it.. She now understood why the girls love shopping trope existed because she was acting like a little girl set loose on a candy shop.

"This is perfect." She said to Ingrid who apparently noticed her completely out of character reaction and walked over. Ingrid took one look at the price tag, though, and her eyes widened.

"Ummm... remember when I said price wouldn't be an issue." She said cryptically. Filled with dread, Emma took the tag and balked at how expensive it was.

"500 dollars! Are you kidding me!?"

"Apparently, it's real leather" Ingrid chimed in from behind the jacket, having moved there to check the tag, "also its brand named." Coming back around, Ingrid placed a hand on Emma's shoulder, "I'm sorry Emma."

As disheartened as she was, Emma decided she was going to have that jacket if was the last thing she did.

"You wouldn't know anyone who's hiring would you," Emma asked kind of as a joke, but Ingrid seemed to seriously concider it.

"Well, if you dont mind being around children, I know a woman who will pay you to watch her kids while she works the night shift for the next three days."

Emma thought about that. She could be good with kids, she'd taken a few under her wing when she was in foster care, this wasn't really any different than that.

Turning to Ingrid, she put on her serious business face and said, "I want that jacket, make it happen," laughing, ingrid agreed to call this friend of hers and set up a meeting.

With great difficulty, Emma pried herself away from the jacket, and the two continued their shopping spree.

They came out of the store with over 7 new outfits for the summer and 10 for the winter. Emma was still dead set on that red leather jacket, though. She decided she needed to find a way to earn some serious cash fast. Babysitting was one way to earn some money, but the neighbors drive ways were starting to look pretty snowed in. The whole way home, Emma kept on looking for business opportunities in everything she saw. By the time they got home, Emma had a list a mile long.

-0-0-0-0-

"Umm... Excuse me. Excuse me, Ms. Feinburg, I'm sorry to interrupt, but your time expired ten minutes ago. Can you please let some one else have a turn," A timid, young librarian mumbled to a rather ostentatious looking woman, with half-white half-black hair.

"Ugh, you're still here." The woman snapped back. "Why don't you go make yourself useful and get me a drink. I'm absolutely parched."

"Ummm, you can't drink near the computers," the librarian replied.

"Ugh, useless."

Completely ignoring the flighty librarian, Cruella Feinburg, or as she was once know, Cruella De Vil, turned back to the computer screen and continued her search. She was looking through every public record she could, trying to find even a passing remark about the mysterious vanishing girl or her mother, but with only their physical descriptions to go by, Cruella wasn't getting anywhere. Finally, after a few more minutes of searching through missing person adds, she decided it was useless and closed the browser. As she got up to leave, she remembered she hadn't checked her email in a while; Not since that horrible little man she was married too kicked her out. _Perhaps his brother would be more receptive to my lifestyle._

Shaking her head, Cruella wiped that thought from her head. She had more important things to think about than money at the moment.

Pulling up a tab on the internet, she logged in to her email and then gasped in pure shock and terror. There was one unread message, and emblazoned on address line, was the name Rumplestilskin. Cruella looked around frantically, the flighty librarian had apparently taken off, but she wasn't looking for her. She was searching for a toad looking man in brown leather.

She couldn't see him, but she was sure he was here somewhere. He'd never miss a chance to see someone unsettled, especially it it was his handiwork. Turning back to the screen, cruella reread the name on the screen. With a trembling hand, she opened the email deciding to just get it over with. The letter read.

 _Cruella de vil_

 _Thought you heard the last of me, did you? Oh no dearie, we aren't done with each other just yet. I bet you're wondering how I'm here. Well, remember that dark curse I had you and our fellow stooges aquire for me, well Regina cast it and now here I am. You may also be wondering why I've contacted you. I know you what you're doing out there. You're trying to magic back, but I can tell you that that brat your after can't give it to you; but what she can do, is take you to a place where you can obtain it. It's called Storybrooke. A quaint little town in Maine; However, it is protected from intruders by the dark curse, only the girl can pass through unhindered. Find her, bring her to storybrooke along with another dark hair girl, she will also be essential. She will be someone very close to the blonde and the same age. Once you have them, and you arrive inside the town, meet me at a place called Mr. Gold's Pawnshop. Deliver the girls to me, and I will tell you how to reaquire your magic. I look forward to seeing you._

 _Yours truely, Rumplestilskin._

Cruella gave the letter another read, then another or good measure.

 _That infernal creature! There's no escaping him! Even here in this world, I cant be rid of him!_

Cruella would have been happy to just delete the email and never see that man again, but he was at least right about one thing, the girl couldn't give her her magic back. She knew this deep down already, but she had planed on interigating the girl about where she got her magic. It was a long shot, but she was desperate. If going to this Storybrooke and meeting Rumplestilskin could give her the means of reaquireing her magic, then she had no choice but to do it.

 _Damn that imp and is manipulations!_

Packing up her things, Cruella exited the small local library and waited at the bus stop. She still had a girl to find. Taking the bus and hoping they get on the same one wasn't the most effective strategy, but it was the only one she had. Not only that, now she had to find another brat as well. Her chances of recovering her magic had only gotten slimmer thanks to the Dark One's email. No matter, she'd gladly give that little imp a whole schoolbus of teenaged girls if he could give her her magic again. Cruella sat down in the only remaining seat on the bus, next to a sickly looking man. A man who then proceeded to sneeze all over her.

 _Damn public transportation! Damn it all to HELL!!!_

-0-0-0-0-

Meanwhile in New York City, a former mermaid was given orders to hold her ground, and to expect guests at her little aquarium tour some time in the next month.

-0-0-0-0-

Emma started at the small purple stone sitting on the counter, "what is it?" She asked.

"It's a memory stone." Ingrid replied, "People use it to take away memories and store them within, often times it's used by healers to help people recover from traumatic experiences."

"Are there any memories in it?" Emma asked, poking the stones smoothe surface.

"Yes..." was all Ingrid said, but her tone told Emma, there was more to the story.

"Who's?" Emma decided to ask.

Ingrid looked pained. Emma could tell she was reliving another painful memory. She'd been doing that a lot lately, Emma noted. After a few long minutes passed, Emma thought Ingrid wasn't going to answer, but then she turned to her and looked at her with great sorrow.

"Someone you're going to meet someday," She said vaguely, "when that will be, though, I'm not sure. Me and Elsa... we didn't leave each other on the best of terms. We got into a argument, and we both said and did somethings that we couldn't take back, that's when I left Arendelle. I took away her memories of me before I left. I had hoped that when we're finally reunited, her experiences will help mend the rift between us, and I could return them to her."

Emma looked at the stone with new eyes. That tiny little stone held someone's entire memory of Ingrid. It had the power to wipe away someone's whole existance, and make it like they had never even met that person in the first place. This fact unsettled greatly Emma. She glanced at the woman who had become her whole world, and felt a profound sense of dread at the thought of losing all her memeories of the woman she had come to love and care for. All the great times they had, all their fun lessons on magic, could just be removed from her mind and she would never know what she was missing.

Turning to Ingrid, Emma needed to say something, "Ingrid, please don't ever take my memories away."

Ingrid looked at her in shock, "Sweetie, I'm not going to take your memories away. Why would you say that?"

"I don't mean right now," Emma said shaking her head, "but what if one day we get into a fight, and you decide it would be better if I forget you and use that stone on me? I don't want that, ever."

Ingrid stared at Emma in disbelief. She could tell Emma felt strongly about this, but she didn't want to promise such a thing. Something's are just better left forgetten.

"Emma, I dont think-," Ingrid tried to say, but Emma wouldn't hear it.

"Look, I get that you think you're better off forgotten by this Elsa person, but just taking peoples memories away doesn't solve the problem. It just leaves it hanging in the air. Once you give the memories back, the agrument will still be there and nothing will have been worked out."

"Emma you don't understand, I hurt her so badly that day. I had to do it."

"I get that's what you think, but how can you two move on when one side doesn't even know there's a problem?"

Ingrid looked indecisive for a moment, so Emma decided to bring her argument home.

"Ingrid, please," Emma said softly, "I don't want to lose you. Promise me you won't take away all the good times I've had with you. I finally know what it's like to have a family. I can't bear knowing that that could all just be taken away from me. Please, mom, do this for me."

Unbenounced to Emma, the word 'mom' made Ingrid freeze in shock.

 _Mom? But... No... No, Emma was supposed to be my sister, not... not my daughter._ Ingrid thought to herself, _Did the sorcerer lied to me? How can Emma be my sister if I'm her mother?_

Despite this, though, Ingrid couldn't deny the joy she got from hearing the word. Being called a mother was something she never thought she'd want, but still, she couldn't deny that she'd acted more like a mother than a sister to Emma. Ingrid was beyond confused. She never thought Emma would see her as a mother, and she certainly never set out to act like one either, but that's what was happening. Ingrid was at a lost about what to do about this, though. One thing she did know was that she couldn't discourage her from calling her mom, that would only driver her away.

Ingrid looked into Emma's eyes trying to see if the answer was there in her soul, and what saw was how much Emma loved her. Her eye's begged her to spare their happy memories, and with that, Ingrid's will broke,

"Ok, I promise," She choked out, "No matter what happen's between us, I swear I won't take away the memories of all the happy times we had, and I won't wipe myself from your mind."

Emma beamed happily at her and shot forward, wrapping her in a tight hug.

"Thank you. I'm so happy you'd do that for me. I never what to lose this," Emma said joyful beyond belief. "I love you, mom"

Ingrid returned the hug with just as much joy. As confused as she was about Emma's destiny, she did know one thing for certain. She never wanted to lose this either. Unfortunately, this lead to Ingrid feeling dread starting to well up in her gut.

 _Fate will take her away from me, I just know it._ Ingrid frowned over Emma's shoulder, _I will not lose Emma, not now, and certainly not to fate._

The day passed like normal, but Ingrid was frantic inside. _I have to stop Emma from leaving me. I need... I need the stone. I need it to save our new family from fate._

Ingrid knew what she had to do.

 _I'm sorry, Emma. I hope one day you can forgive me._

-0-0-0-0-

That night, as Emma lay asleep in her bed smiling from the wonderful day she had, Ingrid stood at the foot of her bed, holding the memory stone. She fingered the stone in her hands, trying to decide what to do. She needed Emma, now more than ever. She didn't want to risk destroying their new relationship by breaking her promise mere hours after making it, but if fate tried to take her away from her, the only way she could hope to stop it was by erasing Emma's memories. After almost half an hour of thinking, Ingrid finally made a decision. She would keep her promise to Emma and never completely wipe herself from her memories, and she will never touch the good times they had; however, she also needed to battle fate and she needed the stone to do that.

"Forgive me, Emma."

Ingrid touched her finger to the stone and a short stream of memories poured out of Emma's mind, into the stone. In the morning, she wouldn't remember the conversation about the stone, or their promise.

Once it was done, Emma's smile faultered a bit, but Ingrid didn't notice. She was too wrapped up in the sudden wave of guilt that washed over her. For the first time in a long time, she felt bad for doing something immoral, but Ingrid pushed those feelings aside and quietly exited the room.

 _This is necessary,_ she told herself, _Emma will understand one day. When we find Elsa and convince her to join our family, she'll understand why I had to do it. Fate will not take another loved one from me! This is a war fate will not win!_

Even as she raced to her room and as quickly as humanly possible, and dumped the stone into its case like it was burning hot, Ingrid kept telling herself this. She fell into bed telling herself this, and by the time she sleep took her, she truely believed it.

 _Emma and Elsa will be my family. No matter what price I must pay._

-0-0-0-0-

Lily woke feeling cold. Her whole body was soaked from the rain the night before and it was in the middle of January. Yesterday had been one of the warmer days of winter Lily had seen, but today the cold was back, and it was just above zero. Getting up, Lily walked down the alleyway where she spotted an old man standing in front of a barrel of fire. One look at the slightly pudgy old man standing in front of her, sporting a beard that would make dumbledore jealous, and wearing strange red robes, was enough to put Lily at ease. She never felt comforble around homeless people. She always thought they were all a little insane, but this guy seemed alright. Deciding the old man was harmless, Lily walked over to the barrel and the man smiled at her kindly.

"Good morning," The only man greeted her,

"Good morning,"

"I'm glad you're awake. I was going to wake you as soon as I got the fire going, but I thought a strange old man waking you would have scared you off, so I just let you be," the old man told her.

"Well, you were right about that, I'm Lily," she said holding out her hand.

"Pleasure to meet, you I am... well most people call me the Apprentice."

"Who calls you that?" Lily asked with a hint of amusement in her voice.

"Mmmm, not many, I'll admit. Most people who know of me are long gone, but I like the name regardless." The Apprentice said lightly.

Lily chuckled "Well your Apprenticeship, thanks for letting me use your fire."

"It was my pleasure," the Apprentice replied, "say, that's a very nice necklace you have."

Lily gripped her most prized possession between her fingers and smiled.

"Thanks," she replied, "it was my mothers."

"It's quite magnificent," the old man said. He paused for a moment then subtly leaned in over the blazing fire. In the early morning, the shadows of the alley were still thick and the mans face was lit with the eerie light of the fire. "did you ever notice how it complements the birthmark on your wrist."

Lily was shocked. _What? what did he just...?_

She looked down at her cover wrist. There was no way he just saw it out of the corner of his eye. A whole bunch off warning bells fired off in her head all at once.

"How did you know that?" Lily asked now wary of the old man.

"I know a lot of things, Lilith Page," Hearing the man call her by her full name spooked Lily so much, she almost bolted right then and there, but the man spoke first.

"Don't be alarmed child, I can see you have many questions; fortunately for you, I have many answers. About who you are and why everything always turns out so... wrong for you."

This whole situation felt so weird for Lily, but the way he spoke like he knew her kept her in place.

"Oh yeah, then tell me who am I," Lily asked still very wary of this so called Apprentice.

"An unfortunate victim of fates vagaries, of which, I'm afraid, I am partially responsible. This wasn't how this meeting was originally meant to go, but one small decision has drastically altered the course of things. I will admit, however, that I prefer this outcome."

"You're crazy, old man," Lily decided.

The old man chuckled deeply, showing some of the old homeless man Lily saw before, "oh, I'm most definitely old, but crazy? I don't believe I'm not quite there just yet. But this isn't about me, this is about you. You are not as responsible for your own misery as you would believe. I bet you've noticed that no matter how much you try to do good, things always ends up worse for you and others in the end. The deck has been stacked against you, Lilith, and it's not your fault. Everything you do will be harder, and I owe it to you to let you know why. I owe you the truth."

"Alright Yoda, enough with the riddles. What's the truth?"

The old man smiled ruefully at Lily. This had gone better than he expected, the kind old homeless man act really smoothed out tensions.

"Lets start with the necklace. It's not exactly a stone, but as you know, it did belong to your mother." Lily listened intently. Her whole life she wondered who her mother was, and why she abandoned her. Now here was this man standing across from her at her lowest moment, offering her the answers she searched for. It all just seemed too good to be true. Like somthing out of a storybook.

The man leaned a bit closer to her, and asked, "would you like to hear about her?"

Lily couldn't nod fast enough.

The man began his tale. Lily was the daughter of Maleficent. She was born in the Enchanted Forest, but was cast out by a spell ordered by Snow White and Prince Charming and performed by him. This spell banished all the darkness from the royal couple's baby, and funnelled it into Lily. This was why she still desired to be good, but also found it so hard to do so. She had double the darkness in her heart, and only a half the light. By the time he was finished, Lily didn't know wiether to laugh in his face and run off, or start applauding.

"Cool story, old man. I bet you'd make a great writer, but I'm gonna go now," Lily said, slowly backing way from the kind, but obviously insane, homeless dude.

"Thanks anyway, for the story, but I gotta get back to... Earth."

As Lily turned to run the other way as fast as she could, the man said one last thing to get her to stay.

"Would it help if I provided some proof?"

Lily stopped, seriously questioning her sanity for even entertaining the guy for this long. She turned around and looked the man in the eye, deciding it was pretty harmless to hear him out, Lily walked back to the fire, "what are you gonna do, pull a rabbit out of a hat?"

The man didn't answer. Instead he reached into his pocket. For a moment, Lily thought he was gonna pull a gun on her. Instead, he produced a long piece of wood in the shape of a magic wand. He walked to the middle of the alley, and turned to face the end. Then the man started waving the stick in a series of complex patterns. Thoroughly amused, Lily was about to start clapping, when to her utter shock, a door suddenly materialized out of nowhere.

Lily gapped at the magically appearing door. It was blue and white, with a design of green vines and red flowers growing on it, and it rested inside a blue frame, suspended in the middle of the alley.

The Apprentice turned back to Lily, and the demeanour of an kind old homeless man was gone. In its place, was a venerable being, that commanded power and respect.

"Now, you see, Lilith. Your destiny is far greater than you realized. Allow me to formally reintrouce myself, I am the Apprentice of the greatest wizard to ever live, Merlin."

Lily stood staring stupidly at the old man. She immediately she started replaying everything he had told her. It still sounded crazy to her, but she now believed.

"I think I owe you and apology old man." She said. With her mouth still wide open.

"It's quite alright, I understand it's a lot to swallow at the best of times, let alone when one had been raised to believe magic is only part of fairy tales." Gesturing with his magic wand once again, a bench suddenly appeared right in front of the barrel.

"There, that should be more comfortable."

Taking a seat, the odd pair turned to each other, this time Lily was a lot more invested in the conversation, "so you said my mother is Maleficent. Isn't she like, a villain?"

The Apprentice looked hesitant. He thought for a moment, trying to pick his words carefully, "She has committed some very dark deeds in her life, yes. But she would have loved you with all her heart. Darkness is a funny thing. Even those so deeply entrenched into it, can find their way back to the light when properly motivated. Maleficent would have gladly given up her ways to make you happy."

"Then where is she? Is she still looking for me. In this... Enchanted Forest?"

"No." Lily sagged at the Apprentice's words, but quickly he continued, "but not because she gave up. In fact, she's here, in this world."

"Really!" Lily exclaimed, more excited than she have had been before, "where is she? How do I find her?"

"She is here, but she is being held prisoner in a small town called Storybrooke, in Maine"

As alarming as hearing her mother was being held prisoner was, Lily still had to raise an eye at the name of the town, "Storybrooke, Maine? Seriously?"

The Apprentice let out an amused chuckle, "indeed, that is its name. Fate has quite the sense of humour."

"Alright, so how do I get to Storybrooke?" Lily asked becoming serious again.

"You can't." The Apprentice replied, "At least, not without aid. The town is surrounded by a dark curse. None can enter, and none can leave."

"I have to get in there! I have to rescue my mom! What do I have to do!?" Lily shouted.

"You already have what you need to accomplish this," The Apprentice answered cryptically.

"Huh?"

"You only need to continue on the course you've set for yourself," As the Apprentice finished speaking, he reached into his robe once again and pulled out a print out of the information she'd gathered on Emma from her computer.

"Emma?" Lily asked in disbelief.

"Go to her Lilith, do as you planned, and regain what you've lost. Your destinies are link to eachother, as it always has been and always shall be. If you stay by her side, and remain a true to her though the trials ahead, Emma's destiny, and my extension your own, will lead you both to storybrooke, and you to you're mother."

And with that, the Apprentice stood up and began walking towards the door. He twisted the nob and it swing open revealing a black void inside. Turning one last time to Lily, the Apprentice said one finally thing.

"Our time is at an end I'm afraid. You will not see me again. The rest is in your hands now, Lilith. Remember what I have told you. Your every endeavour will be an uphill battle. Staying true to Emma will not be easy, but I know you can do it. You may have more darkness within you than most, but the light has yet to be snuffed out. You can still get your happily ever after."

With those words, the Apprentice stepped through the doorway into the black void. As the door slowly slip closed, the frame began to fade away until nothing of it remained.

Clutching the paper the Apprentice gave her, Lily began planning her almost three day hike to Richfield. Spured on by the hope of finally meeting her mother and reconnecting with the Emma, Lily began her march towards the small town outside Minneapolis. Though one more thing also put that spring in her step. An unspoken promise of revenge. Revenge against the two people who forced this darkness onto her to save their own child. Snow White and Prince Charming were going to pay.

Deep inside her, the light was deeply destirbed by these thoughts of revenge running through the girls mind, but thankfully, for now, they were tempered by her good thoughts of Emma Swan. Like the memory of the way she smiled at her in the cabin during those precious few days they had together; a smile that had chased away the darkness in her heart for the first time in her life. She hoped and prayed that soon, Emma's smile would light up her world once again. The darkness shrank back against the light slowly growing in Lily's heart. She smiled.

 _This time, I won't be stupid. This time I'll work as hard as I can to not drive Emma away. I won't let this darkness inside of me win, and I won't let it control me any more! I am going to do the right thing, no matter what it takes!_

-0-0-0-0-

Deep within the woods of the Enchanted Forest, the future got a bit more clear for a certian bearded apprentice. He smiled. While the end result of her journey still up in the air, the future was at least looking just a bit brighter for Lilith. If she kept on this path, then she will truely have beaten the curse the Author forced him to bestowed upon her. She will finally get her happily ever after; Something she should already have had with Emma, before now. The Apprentice smiled hopefully, finally things were back on track.

A/N

Ok, so I wont make these things a regular occurrence at the end, but I thought it would be good to tell people my schedule for uploading this thing. Barring any writers block, for the first 6 chapters, I'll be uploading every Monday and Friday. I got 5 and part of 6 already written and just need to proof read 5 and iron a few things from 6 out. After 6 goes up, I'll be switching to a weekly bases and upload every Friday, again barring any writers block. This is because I got the beginning well mapped out in my head, and can get them out faster, but the later chapters are still a bit vague in this mess I call a mind. Anyway, I hope you're all enjoying Magic Within so far, if so, look forward to chapter 5 on Monday. Cheers!


	5. Magic Abused

_Disclaimer: to own Once Upon a Time, or not to own Once Upon a Time, that is the question. In my case however, I do not own it. :(_

 _Oh and I don't make money off this._

Chapter 5

Emma was obsolutely beaming with joy. She had worked for three whole days straight to raise enough money to buy that amazing red leather jacket she saw at the mall. 500 dollars plus 65 in tax was no small number to raise, but she did it. By babysitting, shoveling snow, and even setting up a lemonade stand in on the side of the road, she finally had the money.

As she and Ingrid drove to the store to buy the jacket, Emma thought back on the last three days and smiled. She had gotten pretty good at spotting business opertunities everywhere she went, something she never thought she'd be any good at. She targeted the homes of old people as prime driveway shoveling clients. She even managed to also rope in a set of twin brother and sisters' to man the lemonade stand while she shovelled snow for a cut of the profits. In those three days, Emma Enterprises, as she had lovingly called her money making campaign, got a reputation for doing good, reliable work; and its side venture, lemonade sales, suprisingly made more money than you'd expect in winter. Emma had chosen her front kids wisely. The twins were ablsolutely adorable, and they knew how to play up the sympathy card. Who could resist two children standing in the snow trying to sell lemonade? Answer: you don't.

Emma was also being praised by Wilma because of her seemingly supernatural ability to get her kids to sleep by the time she left for work. Emma had never managed to used a sleeping spell successfully before her first day looking after Wilma's kids, but with how loud and rambunctious those two terrors were, she had plenty of motivation to learn. On the first night she got so stressed out by the kids constant bouncing off the walls, literally in some cases, she snapped and just waved her hand over one of the kids eyes, and boom, he was out like a light. The kids were never a problem for her again.

Ingrid pulled into the parking lot of the store breaking Emma's thoughts. Literally bouncing up and down in her seat with excitement, Emma bolted out of the car the millisecond it stoped moving and she almost smashed through the automatic glass doors in her rush to claim her prize. After all that work, she was finally about to get that jacket. Everything was coming up, Emma Swan. Then her world came to a screeching halt. Emma looked at where the jacket had been three days prior, and in it's place was an ugly as hell, blue one with a different design.

Racing up to a sales woman frantically, Emma asked, "excuse me, where is that red jacket that was there three days ago?"

The woman looked where Emma was pointing and frowned, "oh, that one? I'm sorry, but I'm afraid it was discontinued and we sold our last one."

Emma's heart was crushed, "what about other stores," she asked desperately, "will any of them still have it?"

"I'll check" the woman said, walking off. She came back a 15 minutes latter, still frowning, "I've checked all our stores nearby, and apparently that jacket was discontinued over three months ago. What stock we had left is long gone."

Dejected, Emma slumped forward, "ok, thanks anyway." She muttered and walked off.

Ingrid was waiting by the door and appently heard everything, "I'm sorry sweetie," She put her hand on her shoulder, "I know how hard you worked for that jacket,"

"S'okay, but hey on the bright side, now I 565 dollars to spend." Emma said trying to sound up beat, but only managed to come off as depressed.

Ingrid frowned. She hated seeing Emma like this. Emma had displayed such motivation to get that jacket, something she'd never shown before. It made Ingrid so proud of her. Walking back to the car, Ingrid decided she had to do something, "hey Emma, your birthday in a few days, right?"

Emma glanced over at Ingrid and frowned, "yeah, so?"

Emma never really liked celebrating her birthday, she was always disappointed. Why even bother?

"Why don't we have a party at our house," Ingrid suggested, "I'm sure Wilma will want to thank you for looking after her children, and those twins have certainly have taken a liking to you,"

Emma brighten up a bit at this, "you really think they'd come?" She asked feeling just a little bit of hope.

"Why don't you ask them when we get home,"

Nodding enthusiastically, Emma agreed to do just that. She'd never really had a true birthday party before. Sure some of her foster parents celebrated it when they knew about it, but this was the first time she'd actually have a party to go with the birthday. She started thinking that she might actually enjoy her birthday for once.

Meanwhile, Ingrid was mentally going through all the clothing stores in town that might carry that jacket. Seeing Emma's face that dejected, just wouldn't do, especially on her birthday.

Ingrid chuckled to herself, when a memory suddenly popped up in her mind. _I remember when Greta and Helga decided to get me that nice sparkling gown for some noblemans ball._

Ingrid's heart stabbed at the memory of her sisters, but some how, it seemed lessened. Usually she couldn't even think about her sisters without break down. It was incredibly odd, but it did help her come up with her idea, for Emma's party, so she just went with it for now.

 _A party for Emma,_ Ingrid thought excitedly, _a party with games and cake and all that fun stuff. Then I'll present the jacket to her. I can just imagine the look on her face._

She hadn't been this excited for an event in a long time. She imagined Emma's face looking like her's when Helga opened the gowns box and showed her the amazing ice coloured gown. _Only, I think Emma will be a lot more enthusiastic about it than I was._

Ingrid was so excited about the prospect of throwing a party for Emma, she didn't even realize she was going faster than usual to get home. After pulling into the driveway and parking the car inside the garage, Ingrid immediately went for the phone book and started to make some calls.

-0-0-0-0-

Two days past quickly for Emma, mainly because she decided to keep Emma Enterprises open for business. A few of Wilma's friends heard about her supposed 'way with children,' and offered to pay her a 40 bucks a day to babysit their kids. Ingrid had yet to catch on to her technical abuse of magic, mainly because she seemed always be on the phone these days. Emma had joked about her acting more like a teenager than she does for it too. Thanks to this, however, her foster mom was still unaware of her harmless bit of cheating, but until she finds out, Emma thought, Why not make some cash off this. It helped take her mind off that jacket which she was still pretty bummed out over not getting.

While her babysitting ventures were picking up, sadly, her lemonade business had gone belly up. The twins started demanding that she increase their cut, so unfortunately, she had to let them go. Without the cuteness of the twins, lemonade just didn't sell in winter. _Maybe when summer rolls around I'll start it back up._

Though while the twins were sadly not great employees, they were still ultra cute, so Emma invited them to her birthday party and they accepted. Wilma and her children said they would come too. The party started at 11:00 am, but strangely, Ingrid had been out all day. After breakfast, she said she needed to get something for the party, and left in the car. That left Emma to get the place ready for her guests. She actually missed spending time with Ingrid. This whole jacket thing had put a hold on the whole learning magic thing, and now Ingrid was stuck on the phone for two whole days, but she knew Ingrid would be around for her party. She knew her foster mom would never miss that.

The first guests arrived at 15 minutes before 11 and it was Wilma and her kids.

"Hello Emma!" The tall slightly heavy woman greeted, stepping inside and hugging her, "where's Ingrid?"

"She left a few hours ago," Emma replied, "said she needed to get something for the party."

"Maybe she forgot to pick up the cake," Wilma suggested.

"Nope, it's in the fridge. I checked."

"Then maybe it's your present."

"Hmm maybe,"

At this point, Emma turned to the two children she had gotten to know quite a bit in the last week. Micha and Helen. Micha was 5 and Helen was only a year apart from Micha.

"Hey, how are you two? Have you been behaving for your mother?" Emma asked, in her cutest voice only reserved for children and puppies.

The two kids stood where they were and looked at her funny, which Emma found odd. Then turned to their mom, "mommy, she's a witch," Micha stated, and Emma's blood ran cold.

"Yeah, she casts a magic spell to get us to sleep," Helen chimed in.

Emma felt like an absolute idiot. She should have known the kids would get suspicious about why they were constantly being knocked out with no explanation. Thankfully for her though, Wilma just laughed it off.

"Oh, you two. Emma's not a witch. She's just good at wearing you down."

Emma let out a nervous laugh, "yep, no magic here. Just good with kids. That's it. ha ha." Thankfully, she was saved from any further awkwardness when the doorbell sounded a second time. Emma excused her self to answer it and behind it was the twins and their parents.

"Hey, bad boss." Tommy, the boy twin greeted obnoxiously.

"How's the lemonade stand treatin ya?" Alice, chimed in smirking after her brother.

Emma grumbled under her breath. The twins were only 10 years old, but they were scarily smart for their age. They knew the lemonade stand wouldn't 'stand without them,' as they put it.

"Oh, I got out of the lemonade business." Emma replied in dramatic nonchalance, "the employees I had were too unreliable."

The twins huff indignantly at the same time, "you fired us for asking for a raise!" Tommy shouted.

"Mom said that goes against workers rights." Alice chimed in sounding just like her brother.

"Yeah well, you should have gone through a union," Emma countered smugly.

"What's a union?" Tommy asked, apparently forgetting he was supposed to be indignant.

"Something that you'll learn about when you start working," the twins father Mike said entering the conversation.

"And something that will screw you the first chance it gets." The mother, Maria, muttered under her breath.

Emma couldn't hold in her laughter and once she started, the three grown ups in the room lost it too.

The twins watched this and just shrugged, "grown ups," Tommy sighed.

"You said it," Alice agreed solumly.

Then the twins ran off. Leaving more laughter in their wake.

"Are you sure they didn't just pop out of TV land?" Emma asked Mike and Maria.

"They do have quite the comedic timing don't they," Maria said.

It was at this moment, Ingrid came walking through the door to the garage. She was holding a box wrapped in brown paper, and she went over and sat it on the table.

"Ingrid!" Emma exclaimed happily and rushed to embrace the woman.

"Hey Emma, happy birthday!" She exclaimed and wrapped arms around her as they collided.

"Thanks," Emma replied, then she turned to back to the others, "and thank you guys for being here."

"It's our pleasure Emma," Wilma smiled, "I'm glad Ingrid decided to adopt you. Your're such a nice girl."

"And bright too," Maria chimed in.

"Not to mention, quite the entrepreneur, as well," Mike joined his wife.

Ingrid then placed a hand on Emma's head and beamed at her, "she's all this things and more. I cant wait for the adoption to finally be official."

Emma blushed at all the praise she was getting. She'd only known these people for a short time, but it felt so amazing to be counted as a member of the community, and Ingrid's words also filled her heart with such joy.

"Thanks everyone," Emma replied shyly, but with a great big smile on her face.

The twins suddenly came rushing into the room and asked, "when are we getting this party started?" They asked impatiently.

The grown ups laughed and then turned to Emma, "what are we going to do first? Cake? games?"

Emma smiled giddily, "any of you ever played Fusion Frenzy"

-0-0-0-0-

Emma yelled as her character was pushed off the spiralling platform, with Maria's not far behind.

"No!" Maria squeaked with both joy and frusteration, "I- I hit the button."

"Wrong button sweetheart. You were supposed to duck." Mike said rubbing his wife's back. Maria threw the controller down on the sofa and crossed her arms like a child. Emma just laughed at the display. She acted all frusterated, but she could tell Maria was having a blast.

Tommy and Ingrid were still going, and Ingrid was in the lead.

"Gett'er tommy!" Helen cheered for her brother, "Don't let that old lady beat'cha!"

It was a close race, but Ingrid won yet again, her third victory today. She laughed and leaned back in her seat, "I've been raising foster kids for 15 years, it will take a lot more than that to beat me!" She bragged.

Helen hopped to her feet and stalked over to stand in front of Ingrid

"No fair lady," she pointed an accusing finger at Ingrid, "you already knew how to play this game. You had an unfair advantage! My brother is the best there is at video games, give him a few more days with it, and he'll wipe the floor with you!"

Ingrid chuckled, "then I eagerly await our next duel."

The whole room erupted into laughter.

After a few more rounds of Fusion Frenzy, they all decided to light the birthday cake. Ingrid came out of the kitchen with a Harry Potter themed cake that had Emma's name written in the same style on the cover of the book, and the last letter in her name was shaped like a lightning bolt.

Mike switched of the lights and they all began to sing,

"Happy birthday, too you. Happy birthday, too you. Happy birthday, dear Emma. Happy birthday, too you."

Emma looked at the candles on the cake and smiled. In birthdays past she always wished she wouldn't be alone on her birthday. Now she had a family, she had a foster mother who would soon become her real mother and she had a few friends around the neighborhood. It was pretty clear her last birthday wish came true, Now she wished for something new, she wish she would never lose this, this feeling she had right now that overwhelmed her and make her misty eyed, this feeling of family.

Blowing out her candles, the room erupted into claps and cheers. Emma felt like her wish might come true yet again.

"Alright, let's cut the cake and then it's present time."

After eating the most delicious and moist cake she ever tasted, Emma followed the group into the living room where a bunch of three presents were waiting for her.

Wilma's present was up first. Emma was already sure what it was, by the shape of it. She tore into the colourful wrapping paper and inside was a album by Christina Aguilara.

"Awesome!" She exclaimed seeing a the CD of her favourite singer, "I love it. Thanks Wilma."

"You're welcome, Emma," She smiled.

Next up was the twins, they handed her a large ovalish object wrapped poorly with a wad of wrapping paper. After struggling to find a spot to open it from, Emma ripped the paper away to find a large piggy bank.

"It's just our way of saying good luck in your future endeavours." Tommy said smiling.

Emma smiled, "thanks you two."

A few seconds latter, Marie and Mike stepped forward and both reached into their pockets, pulling out a 100 dollar bill each.

"Just a small investment into the future of Emma Enterprises." The mike said slipping her 100 into Emma's new piggy back along with Maria.

Emma blushed, "oh no. guys, did you tell them about that?" She asked the twins and they both looked very, very guilty.

"Well... we maybe, kinda, sorta mentioned it to mom and dad when we went to get the piggy bank," Helen muttered shyly.

Emma rolled her eyes at the two. Then she turned back to her piggy bank and smiled, "I guess after giving me such a great present, I can let you two off the hook,"

The final present was from Ingrid, and it was one she had been looking forward to. Ingrid stepped up and gave her the large box that she came in with, "happy birthday, Emma," she said smiling with joy.

Emma smiled back and took the box. It was about the same size as some of the boxes they got from when they went clothes shopping. Curious, Emma unwrapped the brown paper and saw that it was a clothing box. The lifted the lid and froze. she looked up at Ingrid and said, "no way. You- is this-? IS THIS THE JACKET!?"

As soon as Ingrid nodded, Emma let out a squeal of delight that could probably have been heard by the dolphins at Seaworld. She sprang up and enveloped Ingrid in a crushing hug, repeating, "thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!" Over and over and over again.

"Is Emma having a seizure?" Tommy asked, covering his ears.

The room erupted in laughter, but Emma didn't pay it anymind. She raced back to the couch and took out the red leather jacket she had wanted all week. she put it on and it felt so great. It was a bit on the big on her, but you couldn't really notice and it gave her some room to grow into it.

Spinning around Emma showed off her new jacket, "how do I look?"

"You look great Emma," Wilma replied.

"You look like you could beat up Jimmy's dad," Tommy chimed in.

Emma turned to tommy and gave him a strange look, "you think I good tough in this?" She asked.

Tommy shifted on his feet, a bit nervous from her serious question, "yeah, you look bada-"

"Don't you dare finish the word, Tommy" Maria scolded.

"Errr as a biker girl!" Tommy retracted quickly.

Emma smiled sweetly at the boy and then walked over to give him a tight hug. The poor boy tensed and blushed, but he wouldn't knew why for a few more years yet.

"Mommy, why is Tommy turning red?" Micha asked Wilma.

While Wilma sputtered, Mike just laughed, "that's my boy," he said, earning a smack from his wife.

Completely ignoring the banter going on behind her, Emma released a very emmbaresed Tommy. A few second latter, she realized she hadn't even seen herself in it yet.

"Hang on, I'm going to find a mirror," she said, then she dashed off.

She ran into Ingrid's room where she knew there was a full body mirror. She took one look at herself and thought herself, _Yeah, now you look strong Emma._

She stood up straighter and puffed out her chest out. she felt every bit of that strength. Just giver her a magic staff and she'd be a total badass like Tommy said.

She was about to leave when she just so happened to look at the desk and saw a box sitting right in the middle of it. Emma froze. Immediately, she was struck by some sort of familiarity. Forgetting everything else, Emma walked over to the box. She started down at it, felling a very strong sense of déjà vu. She was sure she'd seen this box before, but she couldn't for the life of her remember where. She reached out her hand, easing the lid up. Something was telling her she needed to see what was inside. Emma peered inside the box and saw a smooth purple stone sitting on velvet.

Emma felt so strange, like she should remember this stone but she couldn't, just like the box. She touched the smooth surface of the stone and she had a sudden urge to pour her magic into it. Without really knowing what she was doing, she did just that and a purple stream of a magic began to flow from the stone into Emma's head.

Before she could think about what was happening, Emma was flooded with a memory of her talk with Ingrid about the stone. How she promised to not tamper with her memories.

After the visions were gone, Emma's face hardened. She was livid.

 _How dare she!_ Emma thought angrily, _she promised!_

Hot wet tears fell down Emma's cheeks. She felt so betrayed. The last time she felt like this was with Lily. She opened up her heart and once again, someone let her down. Emma closed the steel door around her heart and quitely seethed in anger. She saw what Ingrid was doing. Not only did she break her promise, but she did it in a way that she believed she could feel justified doing it. She knew what Ingrid's reasoning was. Before regaining her memories, she recalled hugging Ingrid and thanking her for something at breakfast, but she didn't know what she was thanking her for. Now that she had her memories back she knew. She didn't take the good memories but she took the things leading up to them, so she could technically say she kept her promise, though she was skirting the line very, very close, If not outright crossing it. This just made Emma even more furious.

-0-0-0-0-

Ingrid sat in the sofa next to Mike and Maria telling her about the jacket Emma wanted to buy and why she was working so hard the past few days. She was slowly starting to notice Emma was taking along time to come out of her room. She wondered what was taking he so long. Then a sense of dread began to creep into her gut. She tried to remember where she put the memory stone. Her eyes widened as she recalled just where she left it.

She quickly excused herself and went to go check on Emma. she hoped and preyed that she hadn't discovered the stone on her desk, but as walked in she quickly saw that her prayers hadnt been answered. Emma was standing at her desk, hands on the stone, looking very, very angry. One look at Emma's face and she knew: fate, had won again.

"Emma," Ingrid spoke first.

"Don't!" Emma barked, "I don't want to hear it."

With those words, Ingrids heart felt like it had shattered into a million pieces. Emma had never spoken to her like that before, and she looked at her with such hatred and betrayal. Ingrid could practically hear fates sadistic cackles.

"Emma please, just hear me out," Ingrid begged desperately trying to salvage this, but Emma would have none of it.

"NO!" The girl shouted before realizing they had guests in the other room, "no! I don't want to even look at you. You lied to me, you betrayed me, just like everyone else has in my life. I thought you'd be different. I thought I could trust you. I never thought you of all people would do this to me, but you're just like all the rest!"

"Emma I'm sorry, I just wanted to keep our family together, to keep you safe"

"Keep us together?!" Emma shouted incredulously, "Ingrid I was never going to leave you!"

Ingrid let out a sob. She recongnized the way Emma said she wasn't going to leave her; like it was a fact before, but wasnt now, and Ingrid got more and more desperate, "Emma please, fate always takes the people I love away from me," Ingrid tried to explain, "It took my parents, it took Elsa, it even cursed me with ice powers that kill when i get scared, that killed my sister and turned Greta against me. Fate takes everything from me, and I didn't want it to take you away from me too. You're so important too me, I can't lose you now."

As Ingrid broke down into uncontrollable sobs, Emma watched the woman silently. She'd never seen Ingrid like this before. She always looked so together, so fun, happy and playful. Now, she looked so broken. She thought about what Ingrid had just told her, how her ice magic was what killed one of her sisters. This poured a cold bucket of ice on her rage as she stopped to think. Unfortunately, She bearly had time to process anything when Wilma, Mike, and Maria arrived just outside the room.

"Oh my god, Ingrid are you alright?" Wilma asked.

Emma decided it was best for everyone to leave, this birthday party was officially over; but since ingrid was still lost in her tears, Emma had to step up and shoo them out.

"I'm sorry guys, something... something just happened between Ingrid and I, and I think it's best if we talk about it alone."

Confused, but unable to deny the woman sobbing on the ground, the group left, offering their help along the way, but Emma assured them that they could handle it. After everyone was gone Emma took a moment to catch her breath.

She walked back to Ingrid's room to see the door was closed. She stared at the door for what seemed like an eternity. A door she had passed many days before, now looked ominous and dreadful. It may as well have been the gates to Hell with how badly she did not want to go back in there. Ultimately she was unable to force herself to go see Ingrid just yet. Emma still felt betrayed and hurt by Ingrid's actions even though her initial fury had died down. Emma walked past Ingrid's door and made her way to her own. There she laid down on her bed and started to think.

She never thought her foster mother would ever do something like this. She not only lied to her, but violated the sanctity of her mind and memories. Who knows what else she may have taken if she hadn't found out, and that's what really had Emma worried. Just what else could Ingrid be capable of. To her mounting dismay, Emma realized now she didnt know Ingrid, the true Ingrid, that is. The woman in the other room, who sobbed in dispair and looked so broken, she wasn't the Ingrid she had come to know. Ingird was fun, Ingrid was playful. That woman was not Ingrid.

Next Emma thought about what her foster mother had said before Wilma, Mike and Maria came in. It was the first time she had spoke about what caused her to run away to earth. 'Cursed with ice powers,' she said. Not only that, she also revealed that she had murdered her own sister. Emma should have been frightened by that, but the way Ingrid said it, it sounded like it was an accident. That in a moment of fear, something happened and her sister was killed by her magic and the other one had turned against her.

 _Could that happen to me?_ Emma thought, _Could I just lose control one day and hurt someone really bad, maybe even kill them?_

She thought back to what she did to Malcom in the halls of her school a almost a week ago and she knew the answer. She already had hurt someone with her magic without really intending it. At the time she didn't really think about it because Malcom got what he deserved. What if that happened to one of the twins, or Maria, or Wilma or anyone she cared about? Emma felt her magic start to flair up in her chest. She felt afraid of her magic for the first time and what it could do.

Before she could think about anything else, Emma heard the door bell suddenly ring. Desperately needing a distraction, She got up and walked out of her bedroom to the front door. She was half way there when the doorbell rang again.

"Coming!" Emma shouted a bit too harshly, but she didn't feel like covering up her emotions.

She opened the door, expecting to see Wilma or even Maria, but she was woefully unprepared for who actually stood at the door. Emma gaped at the last person she thought she'd see today; a very worn out, very dirty, raven haired girl with a star on her wrist.

"Lily?" Emma asked astonished.

Lily smiled at her. Despite her appearance looked so happy,"Hey Emma." The girl greeted her, "long time no see, huh?"

A/N

Scout: The ducks are in sight, sir!

Me: Are in a row, private?!

Scout: Yes sir, commander sir, the ducks are in a row!

Me: Excellent, fire on my signal!

Scout: Wait, what about our men, sir!?

grabs scouts collar*

Me: Collateral damage, private! Those ducks are in a perfect row, so when I tell you to fire on those ducks, YOU FIRE ON THOSE DAMN DUCKS!!!

Me: Ready on my command! ready... ... ... aim... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

To be continued.

A/N the second

I dont know what that last A/N was all about. I'm just weird sometimes.


	6. Magic Terror

**A/N:**

 **Hey readers, sorry for not uploading Friday. I got hooked on a fanfic of the show Victorious, and next thing I knew I was on a week long Victorious fanfic binge. If anyone's curious, my ship is Jori (Tori Vega x Jade West). Sugar and spice!**

 **Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time is not, and shall never be, owned by me. Unless I miraculously come into a very large inheritance from some wealthy cousin I don't know about, I believe it will stay that way. Also, still not making money from this.**

Chapter 6

Emma stood staring at the black haired girl on her porch. Lily Page. The memories of their last meeting flooded Emma's mind. She remembered the hurt and betrayal she felt when she found out Lily lied to her. She truly felt they were one in the same, and then she discovers it was all one big lie. It only occurred just one month ago, so the memories were still kind of fresh, but in truthfully, Emma realized her anger had evaporated long since. On any other day, she would have invited the dark haired girl in and heard what she had to say, but today had already been such a roller coaster of emotions for her; she didn't need anything else barging in to shake things up.

"Lily look, now's really not a good time, can you come back some other day?" Emma said to the girl warily.

Lily bit her lip and shifted on her feet, "I- ummm."

She didn't know what to say to the blonde. She had rehearsed a few scenarios before she got to Emma's door, but Emma sounded strangely blasé about seeing her again. She was expecting harsh words, slammed doors, or even any kind of emotion what so ever. She got some intial shock from showing up on her doorstep, but that's about it. She was at a bit of a loss about how to proceed.

"Listen Emma," the dark haired girl began, "I really need to talk to you. It's very important."

"Can't it wait. I'm really not in the mood," Emma sighed.

Lily shook her head, "no, I... I can't stay here. It's now or never," Lily said, clasping her hands and pleading. She was ready to drop to her knees if she had to, this was her only chance to reconcile with Emma. Who knows long it would take for the police to find her, "please Emma, I really need to talk to you."

Sighing yet again, Emma, against her better judgement, stepped aside and invited Lily in.

Stepping inside her former friend's home, Lily glanced around a bit, taking note of the party decorations hanging up around the place. One decoration really caught her eye, though; a banner saying, 'Happy Birthday Emma.'

"Oh, I didn't know it was your birthday. Happy birthday Emma!" Lily said smiling her, hoping to break the ice.

Emma frowned, "yeah, thanks,"

Lily turned to the melancholy blonde, and finally took noticed of her mood.

"What, no one show up for the party?" Lily asked teasing a bit.

Emma shrugged, "no, people showed up, it's just..."

Emma bit her lip considering whether or not to tell Lily anything. She wasn't talking to anyone at the moment, mainly because she didn't have anyone to talk to. It was just now hitting her how much of her time she spent with her foster mom. Thinking it would be nice to have someone else to talk to, Emma decided it wouldn't hurt to tell Lily some things.

"Well, me and my foster mom got into an argument. She's in her room right now... I don't know if she'll even be coming out the rest of the day."

Lily perked up a bit to hear she was having problems with her foster parents. "you know, we could run away together," She suggested, "it could be just like old times."

Emma smiled. The time she was on the run with Lily, were some of the best moments of her life. Emma seriously considered accepting Lily's offer, but only for a few seconds. As bad as things were at the moment, she still had her magic to think about. Only Ingrid could teach her how to use it, and despite how hurt she was by Ingrid's betrayal, she wasn't about to call it quits just yet.

"no. Things... they'll probably come around," Emma replied, but she could see that for some reason, Lily wasn't convinced. Then again, Emma was used to being a pessimist, so maybe trying to sound like an optimist just wasn't working for her.

"Let's... let's go to my room. We can talk there." Emma suggested, trying direct the conversation away from running away, which was far to tempting for her own good.

Emma lead Lily to her room and closed the door behind them.

"So, what's so important that you couldn't wait a few days," Emma asked in a curious tone.

Lily stood opposite of Emma and took a deep calming breath. _This is it._ She thought, _The moment of truth. Both literally and figuratively._ Lily knew she had to get this conversation right. Her future happiness depended on it.

Her stomach was chruning with anxiety and on top of that, the darkness inside her was screaming at her to lie, to say anything to get on Emma's good side, anything but the truth, but a long silent and neglected part of her was also speaking up, louder than ever before.

"Ok look," Lily began, "I know I'm probably the last person you want to see right now and I can see your having some issues but... but Emma I'm in trouble. I need your help."

Emma stared at the black haired girl in front of her, as she wrung her hands nervously. She really didn't like how this was starting.

"What kind of trouble?" Emma asked now very wary.

"... law trouble," Was Lily's response.

Emma's eyes went as wide as saucers. Lily opened her mouth to say more, but her throat suddenly felt like it was constricting. She tried forcing an explanation, but the words just wouldn't come.

Emma stared at Lily, aghast. She knew this was a bad idea, she met the girl shoplifting pop tarts after all.

"What did you do?" She asked, the now quivering Lily.

Lily tired to speak, but her throat seized every time she tried. This only made Emma even more frustrated. Unbenounced to either of girls, however, this flash of frusteration was starting to fuel Emma's magic, and a few small tendrils of electricity suddenly raced up the gaps between her fingertips.

"Lily if you don't tell me what you did right now, I'll call the cops and have them drag it out of you," Emma threatened, and yet again, a few sparks of electricity shot up the blonde's fingers.

Emma's threat finally managed to scare that knot out of Lily's throat, "armed robbery." She managed to squeak out. Unfortunately, this was all she managed to say, and it wasn't nearly enough to get Emma to help her. In fact, it made things worse.

"Armed robbery!" Emma shouted indignantly.

"I know that sounds really bad, but it wasn't my fault," Lily tried to explain, but Emma's stubborn angry mood had returned with vengeance, still revved up from her earlier fight with Ingrid.

"Not your fault?! Are you kidding me?! You robbed a store a gun point!" Emma screamed.

"I know, but it all happened so fast. One moment I was on a snack run, then the next, my ex-boyfriend is tossing me a gun and telling me to watch the door."

Lily's eyes started to water and she was starting to panic. She was losing Emma. She was saying all the wrong things, or not saying enough; Either way, the darkness was winning.

"You didn't have to go along with it," Emma countered heatedly, growing more and more furious with her former friend each passing second. Unfortunately for the young witch, anger was a much better fuel for magic than frustration, and a larger spark shot up her finger tips growing more powerful each second. Neither of the girls had seen this yet.

"I know, I was stupid. I made a mistake. Please Emma, you have to help me. I'm begging you,"

"Yeah? Well, here's some free advice for you then, go to the police!" Emma snapped. This sent even more sparks from her fingers; this time though, Lily spotted them before they could disappear.

"Emma, what was-"

"No, we're done talking, you need to leave!" Emma demanded, cutting off what Lily was about to ask.

Lily snapped her attention back to their conversation, "Emma, please, don't do this,"

"No Lily, we're done. I never want to see you again!"

Emma's magic was now going wild. Sparks were flying from her fingertips and arcs of electricity were constantly running up between her fingers. Lily noticed this immediately, and her eyes widened with shock.

"Emma-" Lily tired get the angry teen's attention, but she still wasn't listening.

"Get out of my house!"

The sparks intensified.

"Emma, you're hands."

The sparks got even worse.

"What!?"

the sparks were now crackling with pure white energy.

"Emma, look at your hands."

Finally, Emma looked down and saw what Lily was gaping at. The moment she saw her raging magic, her blood ran cold. She hadn't realized just how much magic was pouring from her hands until that very moment. It was enough to power a teleportation spell ten times over. Emma had never had that much magic summoned all at once, her entire time learning magic. If it accidentally fired off, it could do some serious damage. The moment Emma realized this, however, was the moment that fear started to kick in. For the first time since she learned of it's existence, Emma Swan was afraid of her own magic.

Looking up frantically, she noticed Lily was slowly creeping towards her with her hands held out like she was a wild beast that could attack at any moment.

"Emma, is that... is that magic?" Lily asked with a trembling voice.

This made Emma panic even more. She had never revealed her powers to anyone, and the way Lily was looking at her, quickly reminded her why. People fear what they don't understand.

"Stay away," Emma warned shuffling away from her dark haired former friend. She maybe really angry with her at the moment, but she didn't want to accidentally hurt her, or worse.

"Emma, it's ok. I'm not going to hurt you," Lily said in a soothing voice. she could see the panic in Emma's eyes and assumed it was because she was afraid of her. Lily took another step toward Emma, wanting to help her.

"No, stay back!" Emma shouted, but Lily kept advancing. So much magic was pouring into Emma's hands now that she couldn't contain it. The blonde was so confused and scared. She didn't know what was happening to her, and all the magic she was calling on was rapidly spinning out of her control.

"Emma, it's ok. Let me help you," Lily tried to say, and she took one more small step towards Emma, but this was the straw that finally broke the damn on Emma's magic.

Unable to keep it in any longer, Emma screamed, "I said, GET AWAY!" and then a fraction of her magic suddenly blasted out of her hands and struck Lily square in the chest. The girl was suddenly flung back and slammed into the wall and slumped against Emma's dresser.

Emma gasped and yet another blast of magic leaked out, this time obliterating her nightstand and alarm clock.

Lily let out a painful groan as she registered what had just hit her. Her chest was smarting like hell, and her mind was completely dazed. Looking up to see Emma's horrified face, Lily tired to reach out for her; but before she could utter a single word, Emma ran for the door, out into the hallway, and soon, straight out of the house and into the streets.

Lily took a minute to collect herself, shaking off the fog descended on her brain, and then started to follow Emma. When she got to the door, however, her path was blocked by another blonde woman who looked like had been very recently balling her eyes out.

Ingrid took one look at the scene before her and she knew what this girl had seen. She had heard the commotion before now, but was afraid to come out of her room. Now she realized she should have done so a lot sooner.

Lily and Ingrid started at each other for a second before Lily got the nerve to speak, "you're Emma's foster mom?" She asked.

"Yes I am. And who are you?" Ingrid asked in an icy tone.

"Lily Page, I'm friend of Emma's. Look Emma's just ran away, a few seconds ago, we have to find her."

Ingrid looked once again at the ruined nightstand and dented wall where Lily's back had previously been embedded in. _Emma's magic must have flared up,_ she concluded. She then turned her attention on the non-magical girl in front of her, _She's seen too much. She has to go._

"What did you do to her?" Ingrid growled at Lily, her voice very low and dangerous.

"Nothing!" Lily insisted, "we were talking and then she just... well she,"

Lily stopped. She had no idea if Emma's foster mom even knew about her magic, if she didn't, then Emma definitely wouldn't appreciate her revealing it to her.

While Lily was struggling to find her words, though, Ingrid was thinking about how to get rid of the girl in front of her. _Memory stone would work._

Ingrid narrowed her eyes menacingly, "I don't know what you think you saw, but I think you should leave, you have no business here," Ingrid said in a calm eerie tone, showcasing her inner dark side for the first time in a long time.

Lily's eyes fixed on the woman in front of her. Her statement sent a whole bunch of warning bells off in her head, as did her entire demeanour. This woman had a lot of darkness inside of her, she could tell just by looking into her eyes. She felt, a chill run down her spine. _This woman is dangerous,_ Lily concluded, _very, very dangerous._

Lily started to slowly inch around the blonde, watching for any sudden moves.

"You know what? You're right. I think I should..." Lily was all the way around the woman, when suddenly, the words from Ingrid's last statement finally finished processing. 'I don't know what you think you saw,' did that... did that mean she-

"Do you know about Emma's magic?" Lily asked before she could stop herself.

Ingrid's eyes narrowed instead of widened. Because of that, Lily was sure she was on the right track. She decided to take one more stab to get to the truth.

"Listen, Emma's magic has gone out of control, we have to find her before she hurts someone," Lily was really taking a shot in the dark here, for all she knew, she was just convincing this woman that she was crazy, but thankfully, her gamble paid off when Ingrid let out a gasp.

"Tell me everything" Ingrid demanded, completely switching gears. The girl might be an unneeded nuisance, but at the moment, that's all she was to Ingrid. Emma was all that really mattered, and right now, she was in grave danger. She could deal with this Lily Page later.

Lily quickly relayed what had happened in Emma's room, leaving out any mention of her criminal activities, of course. After she was finished, Ingrid ran her hands through her hair messing it up.

"Oh no, Emma," She muttered worriedly. This was worse that's she thought. After a bit more thought, Ingrid took one last hard look at Lily. "listen, I don't know you, but I need help find to Emma; She's all that maters to me. No one else knows about her magic, so it has to be you. Once you find her, convince her to come home, but what ever you do however, don't go near her. Her powers are unstable and I think it's because she may have come to fear her powers. If you get to close, they might lash out and it could kill you."

Lily nodded her head in agreement. She didn't know how this woman knew so much about magic, but she was right about one thing: Emma was the only thing that mattered.

"Alright, I'll go down one street you go down another. We'll meet back here in two hours. Got it?"

"Got it."

The two ran out of the house with one uniting goal, to save Emma from herself. Ingird went left and Lily went right, shouting Emma's name as they searched. While they both wished to find her, though, both also hoped that they managed to find Emma before the other, Ingrid because she didn't want that non-magical girl around Emma, and Lily, because she got a very bad vide from that woman who she didn't even know the name of. She recognized the darkness in her, though, and she wanted Emma as far away from that woman as possible. It was a race and both determined not to lose.

-0-0-0-0-

Emma's socked feet patted against the pavement as she ran as far away from anyone else as she could. She ignored the pain of the occasional stone digging into her foot, because all that mattered was getting a way from anyone she could hurt.

Emma couldn't believe what she had just done. She blasted Lily into a wall with her magic and then completely obliterated her nightstand. The shards of wood that the table was reduced to were now seared into the blonde's brain. _That could have been Lily._ She thought with horror. The thought of doing that to another person made Emma double over and puke all the cake and ice cream she had, all over the sidewalk. She was now certian that she had to get away, she needed to go somewhere she wouldn't be a threat to anyone. She recalled a large park that was on the way to her school that always seemed devoid of life; no one wanted to go there for some reason, so Emma decided to head there and just hide out for a while, just until her powers calmed down, if they every did calm down.

Emma was half way to the park when suddenly, her worst fear came true. A group of kids suddenly turned the corner and were now right in front of her. Fear shot through her, flaring up the sparks in her hands once again. The kids looked at Emma's hands with a mix of shock and awe. The oldest was only 10, and that fact only increased Emma's anxiousness.

"Woah, cool." One boy shouted.

"How are you doing that?" A girl asked, stepping much closer to Emma.

Fearful for the kids lives, Emma shouted, "get back!" But it was too late, her magic shot from her hands and struck a large tree branch, bringing it down on the sidewalk dangerously close to the little girl. The whole group started screaming and ran away shouting, "witch! she's a witch!"

Emma felt like a dagger had been plunged into her heart. Those kids were absolutely terrified of her and rightly so, Emma thought. She was a danger to herself and the whole community. If that girl had been standing a few feet to the left, she would have been struck by the branch.

Spurred on by her close call, Emma continued her way to the park as fast as her legs could carry her, she only hoped she could avoid anymore catastrophes before she got there.

-0-0-0-0-

Ingrid arrived back at their house shortly after Lily did.

"Any luck?" Lily asked the panting woman.

"Does it look like she's behind me?" Ingrid snapped back.

Lily scowled at the woman's back as she moved into to kitchen. She was really starting to despise her.

"Alright then, what do we do now?" Lily asked, following Ingrid into the kitchen.

After filling up a glass of water, Ingrid turned back to dark hair teen and said, "I have an idea, but I'm not sure if it will work or not."

Finishing up her drink, Ingrid started marching towards the hallway.

"I need to get something from Emma's room," She said, and Lily followed.

Entering the room, Ingrid quickly found what she was looking for, Emma's poster of Christina Aguilara. She took it down and laid it on the bed.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked curiously.

"A locator spell, there might be just enough residual magic in this room from Emma's blow out to fuel it," Ingrid explained with an annoyed sneer. Obviously wondering why she was even still here.

"Wait, you can use magic too?" Lily asked, Ignoring the woman's expression.

"Not normally, Emma generates her own magic within herself, I can only use whatever excess magic she puts out. Unfortunately, she doesn't expel very much," Ingrid explained, "Now, hush. I need to concentrate. I only get one shot at this,"

Lily watched the woman as she placed her hands over the poster and closed her eyes in concentration. A few seconds later, she felt a strange tingle suddenly brush against her skin, and then the poster began to shimmer, before floating up in the air.

Ingrid laughed in delight.

"Man, I'd forgotten what that feels like." She said, just before the poster started floating out Emma's door and down the hall. Lily watched the floating object drift past her with her head tilted and a odd look on her face.

"I am watching a poster of a pop star float by me, and it's going to lead me to Emma like a blood hound... Magic is freaky," she murmured and then began to follow said pop star poster.

Behind her, Ingrid glared at the dark haired girl with malice for her comment. She wanted to go get her memory stone right then and there, But Emma was still her top priority, so she held her tongue and walked out of the room. Soon the two girls were following floating poster of Christina Aguilara down the street, much to the confusion of one old man who was out mowing his lawn.

-0-0-0-0-

Emma was almost at the park. Soon, everyone would be safe from her. Soon, she could relax. Emma let out a shuttering sigh; she felt so stressed. She already had two more close calls since the incident with the children. One was with a woman who decided to be a Good Samaritan when Emma walked past acting nervous, she quickly ran away just in time for before her magic fired off at her. Another incident occurred when her powers suddenly spiked and fired at a parked SUV, leaving a massive dent in the drivers side door. Emma was rapidly devolving into a nervous wreck. She just couldn't take all this pressure. She was constantly waiting for the next passerby, or spike in her powers that'll make them fire off again; Perhaps next time hitting a small child, just out enjoying the day.

Emma felt hot wet welling up in her eyes from everything she'd been through today, but with practiced ease, though, she managed to shove them back and put up a mask on her emotions. She hadn't needed her foster child mask in quite a while, but concealing her emotions had always been a effective means of dealing with her problems in the past, so she dusted it off for the moment. She learned a long time ago, that if you don't feel, you can't hurt. If you can't hurt, then you'll be ok.

 _It's ok Emma, it's going to be ok. Just conceal, alright. Conceal your emotions. Don't feel...Conceal... Conceal... Conceal... ... ... Conceal, don't feel!_

 **A/N the second**

 **So I know I promised I wouldn't make a habit out of this, but these authors notes are like Pringles, I just can't stop. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who reviewed the previous five chapters. Even if it was only just to encourage me and tell me I'm writing great chapters. This has really been amazing to do and find it really motivates me to complete some of my writing, so thank you.**

 **One last thing before I go, though; I thought I might share a few nuggets from my excursions into the Victorious section of , so here's a few recommendations if anyone's interested.**

 **1\. Just a Stage Kiss (rated T, Jori),**

 **2\. The Cards That Life Deals You (rated T Jori),**

 **3\. Green Eyed Monster (rated M, Cat x Jade) -- careful with this one, though, it can get... emotional, very, very emotional. It has some serious themes to it and it can be considered a just smig heartbreaking at times.**

 **And the The last one I found while I was messing round instead of writing is... drum roooooooolllllll**

 **4\. Between (rated T, Jori). This one's my personal favourite, such an interesting premise. Check it out.**

 **Anyway, I'm off to write some more. Cheers!**


	7. Magic Turmoil

**Disclaimer: i do not own once upon a time nor do i make money from this fan fic. But you know, in an alternate universe, I'm probably rich, famous, and tv screen writer. And who knows, maybe in that wonderful reality, i do own once upon a time... if you'll excuse me i need to invent a portal gun that will take me to alternate universes.**

Chapter 7

Lily and Ingrid walked silently side by side, following the enchanted floating poster for quite a few blocks. The two women would occasionally glare at one another, wondering what the other was even still doing here. Things were beyond tense between them to say the least, but Emma needed to be found.

A few more blocks came and went, and the poster showed now signs of slowing down.

"So...how do you know about magic?" lily asked out of the blue, in an effort to chase away the stifling silence.

Ingrid gave her a sideways glare, and her hands clenched. Scoffing, ingrid turned her attention back to the thier floating guide without answering. The two kept walking for a while longer in silence. However, lily wouldn't be brushed off so easily.

"Can people learn it, or do you have to be born with it?" Still silence. Though lily could see she was really getting under the woman's skin. The woman's eyes would always twitch whenever she spoke.

"Is there a way to tell if someone's born with it? Because i got this birthmark on my wrist that's-"

"NO!" Ingrid finally shouted in annoyance. Lily fought valiantly not to smirk,

"you can't learn it because magic doesn't exist normally in this world!"

Lily frowned, "Wait, you just used magic, so why would you say magic doesnt exist?" She asked.

"I never said it doesn't exist." Ingrid ground out, "I said it doesn't exist normally. Some beings are capable of generating their own magic, so they can use magic anywhere, even places where magic doesn't exist."

Lily thought about that for a moment. She knew that she was originally from the enchanted forest, and was the daughter of a super powerful witch who could turn into a dragon. She was from a world were magic existed. But to hear Emma's foster mom tell it, magic didn't occur naturally on earth. This got lily thinking that she and emma may acually share a ancesteral home.

 _Maybe, Emma was origanlly born in the enchanted forest like me. A place where magic existed._ Lily thought to herself.

Before she could continue that line of thought, however, the two suddenly came up on the remains of a shattered tree branch. Looking up the two saw that it had been broken off right from the tree. The two looked at eachother and both had the same thought. Emma must have done this. They continued following the poster further down the street. Soon they came across their second sign of emma: A car with a massive dent in the driver side door.

"Looks like Emma's really starting to lose control," Lily muttered to herself.

"We have to find her before she does something she'll regret," ingrid chimed in.

The two women once again ran off chasing the poster which seemed to double in speed, as if it sensed their urgency.

 _Please emma,_ lily prayed to herself, _please, be alright._

It was quite a while before they found another sign of emma. Lily and Ingrid were coming up on an alley way when they spotted the flashing red and white lights of an ambulance. Lily froze in place staring at the lights. Terror filled her heart and before she could even think, she was running over, hoping and praying she hadnt just spoken to her friend for the last time.

-0-0-0-0-

Emma was only a few blocks away from her destinaiton. The park was just behind a group of buildings. She could probably see it if they weren't in the way. Anxious to finally reach safety, Emma decided cut through a small alleyway that cut through the three blocks seperating her form her safe haven.

The sun was hanging low on the horizon and cast dark shadows all the way down the corridor. Emma's instincts were warning her not to down the deep dark alley, but her mind wasnt really functioning on logic at the moment, so she started down long dark alley. She made it through the first alley without trouble, so without any hesitation she entered the second one. That was when thing went horribly wrong. Emma was halfway through the second alley when she suddenly heard noises coming from behind her. Howling laughter from what sounded like a group of teenage boys. Stopping just long enough to glance behind her, Emma began cursing every force she could think of for her absolutely rotten luck. Coming down the alley towards her, was the last person she wanted to see today - Her foster mother and former friend not included - Malcom and his two goons.

Once she turned around, the jock instantly recongnized her.

"Well, well, well, I thought that blonde head of hair looked familiar." He taunted with a smirk, "you know i got suspended because of you."

The three boys stopped just a few feet from Emma and leered at her menacingly. Emma's magic flared up again with a vengeance. Quickly hiding her sparking hands behind her back, Emma tried desperately to reign in her power. As much as she's despised Malcom, she wasn't about to accedently commit murder; which was exactly what would happen if she didn't get away from him as soon as possible.

"Look Malcolm, now is quite literally the worst time to be around me," Emma said, all the while debating the feasibility of outrunning a linebacker and his two goons.

"Oh really?" Malcom laughed sadistically, "let me guess, it's little Emma Swan's time of the month huh?" The group descended into uproarious laughter for some reason. If there's one thing emma was sure of now, it was that Malcolm and his friends were genuinely psychotic.

The three budding psycho's then started inching towards her again. The closer they got though, the harder it got for Emma to reign in her powers.

Taking a step back, Emma tried again to make them back down, "Listen guys, i really don't want to hurt you-"

The three boys burst out laughing and Emma started to panic. She was starting to realize they wouldnt stop. They just weren't getting how much danger they were in.

"Hurt us?!" Malcom barked, "what a joke. You got us suspended you little bitch! We lost to the falcons, because of you!"

Malcom was almost within arms reach, and from how his voice got harder and harder with each word, Emma was now certian Malcom intended to attack her. Fearing for her safety Emma pulled her hands out from behind her back so she could show him her glowing hands. Maybe if he saw her magic, he would run away liked he kids did. But as she raised them, it never crossed her mind how stupid it would be to point her hands directly at the advancing jock. All she wanted was to show him her powers to make him back off. Unfortunately her will and desire to get him away from her, coupled with her overflow of magic, was the worst combination to have and it all finally blew up. Literally.

The blast of magic was the biggest yet. Malcom, who was closest to the blast, was flung off his feet and slammed into a stack of garbage bags on the side of the wall. The blast quickly reached his two friends, and they too were flung away. The two boys were instantly knocked out as they hit the concrete.

Emma looked at horror at what she had done. The two boys unmoving forms made her heart seize in her chest. Tears began welling up in her eyes as she realized what she'd done. Her magic had hurt someone, badly.

A pained groan sounded off to the right. Malcom's still moving body drew Emma's gaze and she saw the horror in the boy's eyes.

"What are you?" He whispered hauntingly, Emma could only watch as he drunkenly stood up and backed away from her, "you're a witch... you're a fucking monster!"

Emma didn't wait to see what Malcom would do next. She just spun around and bolted down the alley to the park, as hot tears rolled down her cheeks yet again.

As she raced down the third and finally alley, Emma thought about all the reactions she got to her magic. Three times people had seen what she could do, and three times they had looked at her with terror. In all her time working with Ingird on her magic, she never thought about what other people would think. At least not completely. She always believed that her magic was something amazing, as she now painfully found out, other people didn't see it that way. They just saw a witch, a monster. Emma loved her magic, but if this was how people would always react, why even bother. It was a lost and empty girl that finally stumbled into the desolate park just a few blocks from her school.

As she made her way over to a bunch off trees, Emma withdrew further and further into herself, shutting out the world and the people who now despised her.

She stepped behind a group of trees that hid her from prying eyes and slumped against the rough bark of a tree. Gradually the strength in her legs seeped out of her and she sank down to the ground. Finally, she gave in fully to her despair and drew her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them, and buried her head into her folded arms.

Alone with her thoughts and feelings, Emma broke down and began sobbing like she never had before.

She couldnt believe how horrible wrong the day went. It all started out so happy. It was one of the best birthday parties she'd ever had. How did it all go so wrong?

 _Why Ingrid? Why would you do this to me?_ She thought desperately.

Emma's chest hurt so bad. Every thought she had about her foster mom, sent waves of hurt through her entire body. Emma still felt horribly betrayed, but at the same time, she also wanted to forgive Ingrid. She wanted to just go home and hug her once again, simply because she loved Ingrid. The past month she'd spent with her had been so amazing and Emma could tell Ingird loved her too. All those moments they shared as mother and daughter, learning magic, going to the arcade, and even just plain family dinners. They still made emma feel happy to think about. Which was why she felt so horrible because of what Ingrid did. She wouldnt feel this bad if she didn't love her.

Then there was Lily. She had been so ready to forgive her, but then she tell her that she's a fugitive from the law. Emma had been betrayed by her just like Ingrid, and now she comes back into her life with all that baggage and throws it onto her. She felt so conflicted because of this, and what's worse, she felt like such a horrible person for trying to turn her away. She came to her for help and she just threw her away. Lily could very well be her truest friend, but things were always going wrong. Emma just wasn't sure if she could deal with the floundering bad girl, certainly not now.

As all these thoughts, rampaged though Emma's head, the poor blonde slipped further and further into her growing depression. She just wanted it all to go away, and for the stinging in her chest to stop. She wanted her magic to stop scaring her. She wanted a friend to help her. And above all, She just wanted Ingird, she wanted her mother back. She was so wrapped up in the storm of emotions raging in her head, she didnt notice the voices calling her name.

-0-0-0-0-

Lily and Ingrid arrived at a park and watched as their paper guide circled above.

"It looks like she's close," Ingrid said.

Lily scanned the desolate park for any trace of her friend.

"Emma!" She called out. Ingrid followed her example and started shouting Emma's name at the top of her lungs.

The two of them split up without a word, looking for any trace of the missing blonde.

The lights of the ambulance were still flashing in her mind as she despeately searched for emma. The fear that shot through her when she saw the lights was probably the worst she'd ever experianced. It took three EMT's to hold her back until they told her it wasn't Emma. Her relief was palpable, but it still showed her just how important Emma was to her if even the threat of losing Emma sent her into hysterics.

A few minutes after she began her search, she spotted a small group of trees on the edge of the park. As she neared them, she began to hear a quite sobbing coming from behind them.

"Emma?" She called quiter than before.

Taking a few more steps forwards Lily called Emma's name a second time, the sobbing got quieter.

Knowing she found her, Lily carefuly stepped around the largest tree, found the little blonde teen slumped against the tree.

"Emma..." Lily murmured softly.

Emma looked up slowly. The moment she caught sight of Lily, she started to freak out.

"Stay way!" She shouted, trying to scramble away.

"Emma, its ok. We're here to help," Lily said trying to calm her down.

"No! You have to stay away, i cant control it" Emma shouted again.

At this point, Ingrid had heard Emma's shouting and was running over.

"Emma!" She shouted just before she arrived.

Scrambling back some more, Emma's eyes began darting around looking for an escape, but she quickly realized she's been backed into a corner.

"Emma, listen to me, i'm sorry." Ingrid said coming to a stop next to lily.

Emma shook her head violently, "no. Just stop. I'm dangerous. Go away before you get hurt!"

Ingrid didn't listen however, and instead took a few more small steps forward.

"Sweetie, I know what's happening to you. You're afraid and right now that fear is making your magic spiral out of control,"

Taking a few more steps forward, Ingrid extended her hand, "but I can help you. Just let me get close, sweetie."

Seeing Ingrid inching closer, caused Emma to be even more scared for her foster mothers safety. It had been a while since her powers exploded, so she figured she was long overdue for another one.

"I dont want to hurt you." She pleaded, "Please Ingrid just leave me alone."

But Ingrid wasn't stopping. She knew that if she could just reach Emma, she could bring her powers under control just like her sisters had done for her. But Emma was far too scared to let anyone close to her. So as Ingrid crept closer, Emma felt her magic start to boil over again.

 _No, please not now!_ Emma pleaded desperately

"Ingrid, please stop, I'm losing-" then her worst fears came true. Emma's magic suddenly exploded outward, striking Ingrid and flinging her way.

Ingrid gasped as she was thrown backwards over 2 feet onto the thick, unmaintained grass around her. Struggling to get more air into her lungs, Ingrid had to lay there for a second to catch her breath. Meanwhile, Emma looked on in horror at what she'd just done.

"No... no, no, no. Please not Ingrid." Emma started muttering over and over again.

Lily could hear Emma's muttering and realized she was in shock. With Ingrid out of commission, Lily realized it was up to her to save Emma.

"Emma, look at me," she said putting her hands out in a calmng gesture. Emma looked up at her with wild terrified eyes, which only made Lily even more determined to help her.

"Look, I know you're scared, but that's what's making your magic go crazy. Your Foster mom told me that on the way down here."

Deciding to take a small step forward, Lily slowly but surely began moving towards Emma.

"You're scared of your magic, I get that, but you dont have to be," Lily said, taking another measured step, "this all started because you were angry at me, right?"

Lily paused for a moment, waiting for Emma to answer.

"Right Emma?"

Emma nodded. She still looked terrified, but at least now she was listening.

"I'm so sorry, Emma." Lily said lowering her head in shame, "I messed up. This is all my fault. I made you angry and that's why you lost control. I was stupid for going along with those guys, I was stupid for not explaining things better, but above all, I was stupid for ever letting you go in the first place."

Lily felt tears slowly stream down her cheeks, but quickly swiped them away. Now was not the time to cry.

"my life's just been one big mess after another. Most of them were my fault. I lied and betrayed you that day at the cottage. I should have just told you the truth. But I wasnt lying when i told you you make my life brighter. I dont know how you do it, but you chase away all the darkness when I'm near you."

Lily took another careful step forward, but Emma was so enthralled by Lily's words, She''d completely forgetten to be afraid. She could feel the sincerity radiating off of the dark haired girl as she poured her heart out to her.

Lily took this opertunity to move even closer; Taking a few more steps forward.

"I know now I messed up before, but I promise, from now on, no more lies. I promise I'll be a true and loyal friend to you. I will never betray you again. I swear."

Lily was now right next to Emma who still looked up at her in shock. Lily knelt down and contunied to hold Emma's gaze. Finally, she reached out and gently took Emma's now bearly sparking hands into her own, lacing their fingers together.

Lily felt a slight jolt run through her hand and into her heart, but it was tiny, bearly noticeable. In fact it felt good. Like a part of Emma had just run up her arms and nestled itself into her heart.

Lily smiled softly, "See Emma, I'm right here, and were both fine." Lily said, finally bringing Emma's attention to the fact her hands had stopped glowing. Emma looked down in shock at their safely intertwined fingers and a wave of relief washed over her. Looking back up at the dark haired girl, Emma couldnt help but smile too.

"Thank you," she said sincerely, and then launched herself into Lily's arms.

"It's cool Em. I told you, we're friends, and friends help eachother," Lily said absolutely beaming with joy as she held Emma in her arms for the first time in a long time.

Ingrid meanwhile looked on at the scene with a mixture of emotions. Joy for Emma regaining contol of her powers being the biggest; but also scorn for the girl who managed to do it where she had failed. And finally profound sadness from hurting Emma, and in part, driving her too this whole mess in the first place.

She knew now she would never be able to get rid of the dark haired girl. It was clear to her, Emma would never allow it. Despite this though, Ingrid couldn't really bring herself to care. She may hate the girl, and she most likely would complicate things further down the road, but as long as Emma was happy, she could put up with her... for now.

By the time the two girls had finished their hug, Ingrid had gotten up and was on her way over to them. Looking up, Emma saw Ingrid shyly inching her way over. After everything that's happened, Emma realized just how much she loved ingird. Sure she made a mistake, one that Emma was still a bit steamed about, but taking one glance at Lily she decided she wasn't going to make the same mistake with Ingrid she had with Lily. She was giving her best friend a second chance, so she would also give Ingrid a second chance.

Standing up, Emma walked over to Ingrid who refused to look at her, afraid that if she looked in her foster daughter's eyes she would reject her.

Emma paused for a second, in front of Ingrid. then she launched forwards and enveloped her foster mom in a tight hug.

"Promise me you wont do something like that ever again, ok," She murmured into Ingrid's shoulder.

Ingrid began to sob, "oh Emma, I'm so sorry. I promise I wont. I'll destory the stone if you want, anything for you to forgive me."

The two held each other for what seemed like hours and they never wanted it to end.

Just as the two were finally stepping away, a large piece of paper suddenly floated down from the sky and landed on top of Emma's head. There was slight beat of silence. Then Lily suddenly burst out laughing while Emma snatched the paper off her head.

"Oh my god, that was hilarious, ah ha ha!" Lily Howled with laughter.

Emma raised a very confused eye brow at random piece of paper.

"Errrrr, what the heck is my Cristina Aguilara poster doing out here?"

This time Ingrid also joined in on the uproarious laughter. All Emma could do stand there staring at the two girl's with profound confusion, before devolving into giggles herself.

-0-0-0-0-

On the way home Emma and Lily hung back away from Ingrid to speak in private.

"We gotta talk about this whole armed robbery thing," emma started the conversation.

"Yeah, I know."

Emma kept her eyes on Lily's face as it cycled through every emotion imaginable.

"I came here because you're the only one I thought could help me." The dark haired girl explained, "I want to turn myself in Emma, I swear. I never wanted to rob that store. It's just..." lily cast her eyes down as she contuniued, "I'm not strong enough to do the right thing on my own. I - I'm just so scared Em."

Emma could tell she was telling the truth. Not a single word was a lie. This made Emma smile. It proved to her that Lily really was trying to make amends.

Lily felt Emma's arms wrap around her shoulders and she instantly settled into her friends arms. Both girls felt a ease in each other presence, and for the first time since the horribly sucky day of the robbery, Lily didnt feel so afraid.

"Don't worry. What ever happens, I'll be there for you. 100%" emma said.

"Thank's Em. I - I really apreciate that."

For some reason, Lily got the urge to wrap her arm around Emma's back. Without thinking, she did just that and snaked her arm around Emma's back and rested her palm on her waist. Emma didnt seem to mind though, in fact, she tightened her arm around her shoulders drawing her closer to her body. Lily looked up at her friend, but saw she was lost in thought. She was sure the blonde didn't even realize what she did. Instead of analyzing this, Lily just settled into her and kept walking. The two would stay like that the entire way back home.

 **A/N:**

 **And there you have it folks.** **I know this chapter is long overdue, but I just couldn't get some of these damn scenes right. I just wanted the reconciliation to be perfect. I'm still not fully satisfied with it truth be told, but if i wait any longer, I'll never finish this story. Next chapter we will wrap up the last remaining elephant in the room, the fact that Lily still a fugitive of the law. This time i won't wait for three months to update it. He he... sorry.**


	8. Magic Redeemed

**Disclaimer: I have no claim to Once Upon a Time or its characters. That honour lies solely with it's writers and creators. I simply write FanFiction on the interwebs. You can guess who the real winners are in this scenario. They make the money whereas I do not.**

Chapter 8

Emma sat wrapped in her blanket nursing a cup of hot cocoa with cinnamon. Lily was beside her and Ingrid took the armchair near the fireplace. With her magic crisis finally over and dealt with, she was getting ready to deal with crisis number two on the day's agenda: Lily's arrest warrant. After secrets had almost tore her newfound family apart only a few hours ago, she wasn't going to leave Ingrid in the dark about this. No. Better to air these things out now rather than later.

"so… mom," Emma began haltingly, "I guess you're probably wondering who Lily is, huh?"

Ingrid simply nodded, shooting a quick glare at said girl, and said girl just glared right back. Emma decided to ignore the animosity they showed for each other and press on.

"Well, we met each other a month and a half ago and… well... we became friends," she continued explaining.

Ingrid furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"A month and half ago?" She echoed questioningly, "But you were on the run at the time. how could you…" in that moment, Ingrid's face lit up in understanding, "you met while you were on the run."

Emma cringed as she nodded her head, confirming her guess was spot on. It was scary just how easily her foster mom had worked that out.

"And may I also assume you were a runaway too?" Ingrid asked, turning to Lily with another hard glare.

Lily, for her part, fought hard to not immediately spout out a lie. As tempting as it was, her new friendship with Emma was still on rocky ground. One slip up and she might lose it again. This time forever.

"Yeah, we meet… Ummm," Lily paused for a moment, then turned to Emma and looked her in the eye. Emma knew what her friend was silently asking and nodded her consent.

"we met while she was starving and was about to get caught shoplifting some pop tarts," Lily finished.

Ingrid's eyes widened in shock, then turned to Emma for confirmation. Emma was looking down at her shoes in shame. She sighed and leaned back in her chair, massaging the bridge of her nose.

"let me guess, you paid with a stolen credit card?" She stated more than asked.

Both Emma and Lily's heads snapped up in shock.

"Wha… how - how did you-?" Emma sputtered. Seriously. It was truly terrifying how easily she catches on.

Ingrid responded by smiling crookedly at the girls. "When I first arrived in this world, I had nothing but the clothes on my back." She explained, "and they were very out of place clothes I might add. I did what I had to do to survive. I know all the tricks."

Lily didn't know the significance of this, but Emma understood immediately.

"oh... I'm sorry Ingrid," she said, apologizing both for her own shoplifting and that fact Ingrid had to live homeless for years.

Ingrid shook her head, smiling at Emma, it always amazed her how caring her girls heart was.

"what's done is done sweetie," she replied, "You don't have to resort to that anymore. Neither of us do,"

Emma smiled gratefully at her.

"What I am worried about however, is her," she said glaring at Lily coldly, "She's the one who stole that credit card."

"Actually, it was my adopted parents card." Lily corrected, as if that made any difference. Emma responded by quickly placed her hand on Lily's shoulder and looking at her pointedly. Lily got the message loud and clear and leaned back in her chair.

"Look Mom, I know Lily has done some questionable things in the past, but so have I. And she's come here to make things right," Emma explained. Then she paused for a moment and took a deep breath. This was the moment of truth. She knew what she was going to say next was gonna make Ingrid very mad.

"She came here because… because she's wanted by the police."

"WHAT?!"

Emma cringed. This was exactly what she thought would happen.

"What is she wanted for?!" Ingrid practically demanded.

Emma cringed yet again, "Armed robbery," She forced herself to say.

"ARMED ROBBERY?!"

The more she spoke, the more she started to believe this was probably a bad idea.

"Look, I know that sounds bad, but she wants to make it right. She told me on the way back here." Emma tried to explain, but Ingrid wasn't having it.

"Emma, this is not something I want you being apart of," She shouted, "She robbed a store at gunpoint; that's very different than shoplifting or even stealing a credit card."

"She just wants me there for emotional support. She scared out of her mind about this." Emma argued back.

"Then she shouldn't have robbed a store!"

"Yes, she made a mistake, but she's trying to own up to it!"

As the two blondes continued to argue, Lily just sat back in her chair and watched with mounting guilt. Emma was trying so hard to argue her case, but the more they spoke, the more she felt she was dragging Emma down with her crap.

"She's dangerous Emma. If she's capable of pointing a gun at someone, then what else is she capable of?"

That point hurt most of all. Emma foster mom was right; she should never have went along those guys. She should have just ran away. Instead she pointed a loaded gun at someone and made them fear for their life. That's not something that can just be made right.

Tears started welling up in Lily's eyes as her self pity set in again.

 _Who was I kidding. I don't deserve Emma's friendship._ Lily thought to herself. _Why did I even think otherwise._

"Lily would never do that to us!" Lily heard emma shout back indignantly, but this only made Lily's heart sink further. Emma was so fierce, so loyal. When you gain her friendship, she'll go to bat for you no matter what. Even against other people she loves. But Lily knew she didn't deserve that friendship. She hadn't earned it. Not by a long shot.

As the two blondes continued with their arguing, Lily slowly stood up and began sneaking towards the front door. She realized now how selfish she had been. Seeing Emma fighting her foster mom, whom she obviously loved, made her finally see the truth. She couldn't just drag Emma into her mess and expect her to fix it for her. Emma deserved better than that. She needed to truly earn Emma's friendship on her own. Even if that meant doing what she was terrified to do alone.

Lily made it to the door, where she took one last look at her friend.

 _I'm sorry Emma, but I have to do this alone. Thank you for standing up for me._

As soon as Lily was out the door, she began making her way to the nearest police station. Maybe once she's done her time, she could look her friend in the eye again with her head held high.

-0-0-0-0-

While Lily was on her way out, Emma was pulling out all the stops to convince Ingrid to help her with Lily,

"She's my friend, Ingrid, she deserves a second chance. And if she's willing to make it right, then I've got to help her. That's what friends do."

Ingrid ran a hand over her face in exasperation, "I don't like this girl Emma. I think she's be a bad influence on you. She just seems like she's already had her fair share of chances."

Emma stared back at her foster mom and sighed in frustration. _Why can't she see things from my point of view?_ She thought. _Lily wants to change I know she does. Why can't Ingrid see that too?_

Emma took a deep breath and once again summoned all the conviction she could muster, "she needs me, Mom. She genuinely wants to make things right. I can tell when people are lying to me, I can see it in their eyes. Lily isn't lying to me. I swear"

"Emma people don't change like that…" Ingrid said trailing off a bit at the end, not sounding as convinced.

Emma could see Ingrid's resolve was slowly beginning to chip away, so she tried one final time to convince her.

"She deserves another chance, Mom. I can't explain it, but… I feel like I'm supposed to help her. That without me, she'll fall back into her old habits. I can't abandon her now. She needs me to show her a better way. Please mom. Help me help her. I'm begging you."

Ingrid let out an exasperated sigh. She could see that Emma was not going to budge on this subject. She really didn't want Emma associating with the little felon, not to mention she knew about Emma's magic. but since she'd only recently gotten out of a horrible argument with her a few hours ago, she was already on shaky ground with her.

Ingrid thought silently for a few long and agonizing minutes. but in the end, she decided to let actions speak louder than words.

 _The girl is a delinquent,_ she reasoned, _so I'll just let the girl show Emma her true colours. If she gets burned from this then I'll be there to comfort her. And who knows maybe the girl really will change. It was unlikely, but still, everyone deserves a second chance. Emma and Elsa are mine. Maybe Emma will be the girls._

"Alright fine," Ingrid finally relented, "I don't like this, but I trust you. just be careful, ok. I don't want to see you to get hurt."

Emma beamed and launched herself into Ingrid's arms, "thanks mom."

Turning back to where Lily was supposed to be sitting, Emma said, "see, I told you she'd…" but Lily wasn't there,

"Lily… LILY!?"

-0-0-0-0-

Lily stood in the parking lot of the Richfield precinct. She was beyond terrified, staring at the big grey building. Seeing the cop cars she'd learned all her life to avoid, parked out front was doing all sorts of things to her fight or flight response, but Lily was determined to go in.

She thought that she'd needed Emma's help to do this, but she realized now that was just an excuse. She had to do this on her own, without using Emma as a crutch. If she wanted to look her new friend in the eye and say that she's changed, she needed to show it first.

With one deep, steadying breath, Lily started walking to the front doors of the station and went inside.

The moment she stepped through the double doors, she saw a group of police officers wrestling a struggling woman to the ground while she called them every derogatory name in the book.

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME YOU FUCKING PIGS!" The woman shouted, before being dragged around the corner kicking and screaming, "LET ME GO! I'LL BURN YOU ASSHOLES!!!"

The woman's screams trailed off as she was dragged further into the precinct.

Seeing this almost sent the raven haired girl running in the opposite direction, but then she imagined what Emma would say if she were here with her. She took a deep breath and steeled her courage yet again and walked up to the front desk.

The man on the other side looked up at her from his paperwork and Lily froze stiff. Like the cop cars out front, the blue uniform she'd always avoided was staring her in the face, warning her to run. The man's steely gaze seemed to bore into her and extract every dirty little secret she had.

"Can i help you?" The officer asked after she said nothing.

Lily licked her lips and swallowed the giant knot in her throat. This was it. So long freedom.

Lily opened her mouth and uttered one sentence in a small vulnerable tone, "I'm here to confess to a crime."

And just like that, Lily felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off her. She did it. For the first time in her life, she had done the right thing.

"Alright, what did you do?" The man asked.

"I was one of the people that robbed the convenience store in Mantako,"

The man now gave her his full attention, "alright, come with me so you can tell your story to a detective."

Lily just nodded as the man lead her away. She was about to turn the corner when someone came rushing through the front doors.

A blonde haired teen caught one glimpse of her and shouted for her, "Lily!"

Shocked, Lily turned towards the sound of the familiar voice. Standing at the door was Emma. Lily's heart soared as she saw the girl. The two of them locked eyes and Lily smiled. She was so happy that Emma got to see her doing the right thing. It made her feel all the more committed to doing the right thing.

A few seconds later, Emma's foster mom joined her daughter inside the precinct and her gaze turned to Lily. A begrudging smile passed over Ingrid's lips as she regarded the dark haired girl. Lily simply nodded back in acknowledgement.

A few seconds later, the hand of the police officer rested on her shoulder and Lily got the message. Time to go.

The two blondes raced after her and caught up as Lily was sitting down with the detective. As soon as they reached her, Emma gave Lily a big hug which she gladly returned.

"I'm glad you did this." Emma whispered into Lily's neck.

"I wanted to show you I can change," Lily whispered right back.

She would have been content to stay in Emma's embrace until the end of time, but the clearing of the detective's throat brought her back to reality.

"We got word about the convenient store robbery a few days ago. As of now, no one else has come forward. First off, you can tell me your name."

"Lily Page," the raven haired girl replied Immediately.

"Alright Ms. Page, tell me what happened."

And just like that, Lily told her story to the detective. Emma and Ingrid were listening the whole time, as she finally laid it all out. Everything from her now ex-boyfriend bring her along on the robbery, to him swiftly handing her a gun and telling her to watch the door, and finally, her eventual flight to Emma's house.

As Lily told her story, Emma's mind began racing a mile a minute. She had been so scared that Lily had ran away. She practically had to beg Ingrid to take her to the police station. She just had to believe her friend had done the right thing and hadn't just ran. When she saw the black haired girl in the police station, she had never been so proud of her. But now, sitting here listening to Lily tell her story, it was finally hitting home for her that her new friend would be going to jail. As much as she believed Lily was doing the right thing, she didn't want that. but she also knew she couldn't get off Scot free.

As Lily's story wound down, Emma began think of a solution. Then it hit her. Maybe she didn't have to go to jail. Slowly but surely, a plan began to form in Emma's mind. She just hoped it would work.

As Lily ended her tale, Emma quickly asked, "Lily, do you know where the other robbers would be right now?"

Lily looked over at her and furrowed her eyebrows in thought. Then her eyes lit up with the tiniest spark of hope, "yeah, I- I think I do."

The detective leaned forward with interest, "if you can give me an idea where they might be, then I can talk to the DA and get you bumped down to probation."

"you mean I won't go to jail?" Lily asked with that spark of hope getting brighter.

The detective nodded.

Seeing this as her chance to remain with Emma, it was a no brainer. Lily sang like a canary.

"They have a safehouse of sorts that they sleep and get high. It's a rundown squatters pit, but they have all their stuff there, including some personally valuable things. They might go back there to get them if they think the coast is clear. Last time I was there, their stuff hadn't been moved. That was three days ago."

The detective made a note in one his pad and asked, "where is this place exactly?"

"Down by those old apartments in on the west side of Mantako. Right near the place we robbed. It's a little green shack next to the tallest one apartment building."

"Can you give me an address?" The detective asked.

"No, not really. But if you give me a computer, I can point it out on google maps."

After writing that down, the detective finally stood up. "I think we've got everything we need. I'll talk to the DA and let them know you co-operated. In the meantime, please stand up, Ms. Page."

Lily did as she was told. She stood silently as the man read her her rights.

"Lily Page, you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you can not afford one, one will appointed to you by the court. Do you understand these rights?"

"Yes," Lily replied.

Before the detective could lead her away, Emma launched herself at Lily and gave her one last hug.

"You did the right thing, I'm so proud of you." She said.

"Thanks," Lily replied shyly. She wasn't use to being praised for her behaviour, but it felt good.

As Lily was being led away, Emma finally turned back to Ingrid. Emma gave her a smug smirk, that just screamed,'I told you so.'

Ingrid rolled her eyes in surrender

"I guess, I was wrong about her. She's not a total crook."

Emma frowned at her foster mother, but decided not to push it. She didn't know why Ingrid hated Lily so much, but that was a question that could be answered another day. This one had already been to much of a whirlwind as it is.

As they sat and waited for the detective to return, Emma sighed and flopped her head back against the headrest on her chair.

"Most. exhausting. birthday. Ever," she said.

"It's certainly one I won't forget for a long time." Ingrid replied, "I'm sorry it went so bad."

"It's ok, it's all water under the bridge now." Emma replied, "Besides, it wasn't all bad, I learned some valuable things about my powers, I got my friend back, and you and me have come to an understanding."

"Yes we have," Ingrid replied, "if that girl can keep her promise, then I'm certainly able to do so."

Emma chuckled a bit at her foster mom's comment. She really needed to find out why Ingrid hated Lily so much.

A few minutes later, the detective came out by the look on his face, Emma immediately knew that something was wrong.

"We have a bit of a problem. I know I said I could get her probation, but she tells me her parents have kicked her out of their home and want nothing to do with her. Without a guardian, I'm afraid she won't be let out on probation."

Emma's heart sank. She thought for sure everything was going to be fine. This just wasn't fair.

Ingrid stepped up behind Emma and rested her hand on he shoulder trying to soothe her disheartened daughter..

"Oh, I'm sorry Emma," Ingrid said rubbing circles in her back, "it was a good idea though." However, Emma turned around and looked back at her with a strangely thoughtful look in her eye. Ingrid realized far too late what that look meant.

"Wait, you said she just needs a guardian, right?" She asked the detective.

"Yes, but her parents-"

"I know. Her parents don't want anything to do with her, but what if Ingrid were to take her in? She's a licensed foster parent and she has a big enough house."

The detective was shocked into silence, but not nearly as much as Ingrid was.

"Well, if the paperwork checks out, then I might be able to swing it." The detective replied thoughtfully. The more he thought about it though, the more feasible it sounded, "yeah, It could work."

It was at this point, Ingrid had recovered and realized exactly what was happening.

"Emma," she said in a low warning tone, "I didn't agree to this."

"Please Ingrid," Emma begged, "If you don't she'll have to go to jail."

Ingrid sputtered as she tried to catch up with what her daughter was asking, "sweetie, I don't think-"

"Come on Ingrid, please. Do this for me. I promise I'll keep her out of trouble. And if she gets out of line, you can kick her out. Please Ingrid, please."

Ingrid had long since reached her limit on the amount of shock she could take. The whole day had been one crisis after the other, so the moment Emma started begging her to let the girl stay, she knew she was a goner.

"Alright, fine." She groaned loudly, as Emma cheered.

"I'll go give Ms. Page the good news." The detective said, and Emma thanked him profusely.

Ingrid on the other hand, simply turned around and began walking away towards the lobby. She learned her lesson. She was going to sit down and wait in the lobby, until they leave. She was not tempting fate again today.

 **A/N:**

 **Man I wish the last chapter was as easy to write as this one was. To be honest though, I think it had to do with the fact that this was the only solution I could come up with that didnt involve hypocritical uses of magic mind stones to wipe the collective minds of the two city police forces and have LIly remain in the story instead of in an orange jumpsuit. I wasn't flip flopping around on ideas, trying to think of the best one to use. Anywho, next chapter is gonna be a bit on the fluffy side as results of this chapter are settled, with one final lose end tied up from this little saga. You know the one I'm talking about. It involves a very untimely very bloody accident for our favourite psychopath... just kidding... ... ... or am it? Naw really am I'm just kidding. Lol. So anyway stay tuned for the next chapter. Cheers! :D**


	9. Magic Crush

**Disclaimer: once again, Night-shadow-989 would like to remind you that he in now way owns Once Upon a Time, and makes no money from this fan fic. He is quite sad about this fact. This ends this public service anouncement, please enjoy the fic.**

Chapter 9

It was five days later and Lily sat in a courtroom waiting for the judge read out her sentencing.

The days in between had been some of the hardest she'd ever had to endure. She was forced to face her adoptive parents again and see that all too familiar look of disappointment on their faces.

The yelling was bad enough, but what made the ordeal even worse was that they aired all her dirty laundry out to Emma and Ingrid in excruciating detail. After hearing all the terrible things she had done in the past, she was sure that Emma and Ingrid would abandon her on the spot. The only highlight of that little misadventure was seeing Emma stand up to her parents. She defended her so vehemently that all Lily could do was stand by and watch in awe. If there was any doubt left that Emma was a true friend before, it was gone as soon as they walked out of her childhood home.

The next thing that occured was her testimony against her ex-boyfriend and his friends. The police had caught them trying to grab their stuff just like she said they would. Sitting there weathering their glares of hatred while sealing their fate was stifling. After she got off the stand, she made sure to ask Emma if she had any spells in her repertoire that would protect her from a bullet. She was pretty sure they wouldn't go that far to get back at her, but it didn't hurt to be safe.

And then, finally, there was Ingrid. While Emma absolutely adored the woman, Lily was still convinced she was bad news. There was just something about her that rubbed her the wrong way, and the looks she have her whenever they passed each other in the hallway, only added to that feeling.

But on the other hand though, Ingrid hadn't done anything overtly hostile towards her or Emma, aside from the aforementioned sneering. She also let her stay in her home, so because of that, Lily decided to give the older blonde the benefit of the doubt. She wasn't going to mess this up again by antagonizing Emma's foster mom, no matter how much the darkness inside kicked and screamed at her. And oh boy did it kick and scream. As they days went by, she had to constantly fight her darker impulses. Whenever someone angered her, she had to fight not to punch them in the face. Whenever she saw a 20 on the table, she had to fight not to swipe it. or even when she just saw a car parked on the street, she had to fight not to break it's mirrors. It was a real eye opener for her. All this time, She never truly realized just how much the darkness ran her life until she actively started fighting her dark impulses.

"Please rise for sentencing."

Lily snapped out of her thoughts and listened intently to the judge.

"The defendant has plead guilty to the charge of accomplice to armed robbery and possession without a license. Minimal sentence or these crimes is 2 years in a juvenile detention centre. However, as per the agreement for her cooperation and assistance in apprehending her accomplices, the court will uphold its end of the bargain and sentence the defendant to 2 years probation. You will report to an assigned parole officer every week to check in. You will be required to return to the Arendelle residence every day at 8:00 pm for mandatory curfew. This will continue until your sentence had been completed. This is a fresh start for you Ms. Page, use it wisely. This court is adjourned."

With the bang of a gavel, everyone rose and began filing out of the small courtroom. Emma came walking up with Ingrid right behind her.

"Well, I guess that's that." Emma said awkwardly, not knowing what else to say.

Lily had to smile at her friends way with words. The courtroom proceedings must have really made her nervous.

"we should leave." Ingrid said looking anxious to get out of there.

"Yeah," Lily agreed.

"Let's go home," Emma smiled softly at the two girls. And without hesitation, they did.

-0-0-0-0-

When they returned to the house, Lily went immediately to her room and flopped on her bed. Emma and Ingrid didn't bother stop her. They knew how trying the day was for her, so they just left her alone.

As soon as her stomach hit the mattress, Lily breathed a sigh of relief. She felt absolutely euphoric at everything she had done. She beat the darkness. After years of being ruled by it, she finally fought back did something right.

A few minutes passed with Lily simply basking in her victory. Then something happened. She began to feel something in her chest. It felt like some kind of tingle or shimmer. She raised her head off her pillow and looked towards her door. She couldn't explain it, but it felt like someone was on the other side of the door. Just as she thought that, someone began knocking.

"Lily, are you awake?" Emma's voice asked through the door.

Lily tilted her head in surprise.

Ok that was weird… she thought.

"Yeah I am," Lily answered and Emma opened the door and came inside.

"Hey, crazy day, huh?" Emma said.

"Yeah, crazy." Lily replied.

Emma walked over and sat down on the bed with her. As her new housemate made her way over to her, the simmering in Lily's chest got more noticeable. It felt kind of like a light tickle. As if a small fairy had stuffed her chest full of pixie dust.

"How are you holding up?" Emma asked, distracting Lily from the strange feeling.

"Well, good as can be expected," Lily replied, "this whole staying out of trouble thing is harder than it looks."

Emma laughed, "being good is hard?" She asked confused.

Lily let out a deep chuckle, if only she knew.

"Well, it is when you don't have a good role model," Lily replied, "now I just tell myself, 'what would Emma do?' and it usually works out."

Emma let out a nervous chuckle, "I'm not sure I'm the best role model, but… that's really nice of you to say."

"Don't sell yourself short, you're the most honest girl I know," Lily said, "you're a great role model,"

Emma blushed deeply at Lily's comment, "thanks Lily"

The two girls soon lapsed into a comfortable silence. Lily laid back on her bed and Emma did the same. Turning her head, Lily found herself locking eyes with Emma and getting lost in her beautiful green eyes. Something else was beginning to worm its way into the raven haired girl's chest.

In this quiet moment, Lily began to think about her feelings for Emma. In all the time she had been running around trying to regain her friendship, she never once stopped to think about why she was so adamant on doing so in the first place, even before meeting the Apprentice. All she knew was that she couldn't get the beautiful blonde girl out of her head. She knew she wanted to be close to her, but she never considered in what way. But now, sitting here with her on her bed, gazing deeply into her eyes, she knew. The blossom of butterflies in her stomach were a dead giveaway on its own. She wanted nothing more than to reach out and run her hands through her voluptuous golden locks, to caress her cute full cheeks, and above all, kiss her full pouty lips. It was official. She had a huge crush on Emma Swan.

Upon realizing this, Lily went through a whole host of emotions at once. Everything from shock, to just sheer disbelief. She never felt this way for a girl before, so finding out she was gay for her best friend was really jarring. Then there was the fact Emma was her friend. That opened up a whole line of questions that Lily would rather not touch right now. Is Emma even gay?!

While Lily was busy having her internal crisis, Emma must have noticed something because all of a sudden she asked, "hey, are you ok?"

Jared from her inner monologue, Lily quickly started to do damage control "yeah, yeah, im fine," she said, at little shakily. Predictably, Emma didn't look convinced.

After a bit of condicideration, Lily felt like she had to say something. She just had to reveal her true feeling even just a tiny bit. Anything to help answer the maelstrom of questions going through her head.

"Hey Emma, listen," Lily began, "I just want you to know that I'm glad you gave me a second chance. I… I don't know what I would do if you rejected me again. I just feel so… drawn to you." Lily's heart began to beat faster, and her hands started to get sweaty, "you're such an amazing girl, and I really like you."

Lily felt absolutely sick. Did she reveal too much? Was she too blatant? She looked for any sign in Emma's eyes that she maybe felt the same way, any sign at all, but maddeningly, she couldn't see anything.

"So i guess, what I'm trying to say is… I-" _come on Lily say it, just say it. Why are you pussy footing around this, just tell her how you feel._ "i… ummm… thank you. For… you know, giving me another chance."

Emma laughed shyly, "umm, no problem Lily. You were my first real friend, how could I just walk away from you?"

And just like that Lily's heart sank into her stomach. Friends. That's all she was to Emma, just friends. Of course they were. Lily had no idea what she was thinking. She probably wasn't even gay.

Lily quickly buried the hurt she felt and plastered on a smile.

"Well, you can't," she joked, in an effort to appear like everything was still normal, "i'm just too damn loveable"

"Yeah, you are," Emma laughed, unaware of the heartache her raven haired friend was feeling. Lily was barely able to keep it together.

"Hey, Emma could I… ummm… have some time alone for now. It's been a long day and I'm tired."

"Oh sure," Emma said standing up, "I should probably go to bed too. we got school tomorrow."

"Yeah, my first day. So yeah, i should get some sleep, goodnight Em."

"Nite Lils."

And with that, Emma went off to her room. The simmering in Lily's chest got dimmer as Emma got further away, but it was still there and it further added to Lily's heartache. The two of them were connected just like the apprentice said, but despite that deep connection, Lily would never be able to tell Emma how she really felt.

Lily laid down on her pillow and began to softly cry. Even though she knew she had nothing to cry about. She had Emma's friendship, an already precious thing to have, she would just have to be satisfied with that.

Later that night, Lily fell asleep thinking about her blonde friend. It seemed that even after everything, she still couldn't get her out of her head.

-0-0-0-0-

Emma stood outside her class after the bell waiting. A few minutes later Lily came walking down the hall towards her.

"So, how'd it go?" Emma asked beaming at her best friend now schoolmate.

Lily was also smiling as she sauntered up to Emma.

"Pretty good, I got two classes with you," she said, "but apparently the principal is, and I quote, 'keeping an eye on me'," Lily scoffed, "he's such a tool."

Emma rolled her eyes, and smirked playfully "he probably took one look at your transcripts and began gearing up for war," she joked.

Lily laughed at the mental image Emma conjured in her mind, "yeah, probably. I can just see him in front of a white board in a general's helmet and fatigues." The two girls burst out laughing at that. This was what Emma really loved about having Lily around. She never failed to make her laugh.

"But that's in the past." Lily continued once they'd calmed down, "This place is gonna be the first to see the new and improved, Lily Page."

"can't wait, for them to meet her?" Emma smiled.

As soon as she said that, Emma suddenly spotted someone behind Lily that she'd been meaning to talk to for a week now. Malcolm had been avoiding her like the plague since he got home from the hospital.

"Hang on, there's something I gotta do." She said to Lily. The boy exited the school through a back door, and Emma moved to follow him outside.

Lily decided to follow her.

Almost immediately, Emma spotted the three boys that made it their mission to make her life miserable. As soon as they spotted her walking up to them. They immediately got tense.

"What do you want?" Malcolm asked with a trembling voice.

Emma was tempted to smirk at the boys terrified words and gloat, but she decided to just get this over with.

"Look, we've obviously got off on the wrong foot. I don't know why you three keep on harassing me, but whatever I've done, I'm sorry. And about last week, I'm sorry for that too. it was… a really bad day for me. So how about we just put all this behind us huh. We forget it ever happened, and just stay away from each other."

Malcolm face immediately twisted into pure hate.

"you're joking right?" He spat, "I don't know what the hell you did in that alley, but you're a freak, and i'm gonna tell the whole school just what you are!"

Normally, Emma would've been scared being so close to the raging jock, but she noticed he was inching away from her. He was acting like she could just snap at any second and blast him into the next county. She was pretty sure he wouldn't even think of attacking her now.

Before Emma could respond, Lily called out from behind her.

"No one will believe you," she said, which only managed to make Malcolm even more angry.

"I'll find proof!" He snapped back, "mark my words Swan, I'll make it my mission to expose you. And when I do, I'll be the richest man in America. I'll be the guy who proved that magic exists."

The beefed out psycho finished off his rant with a demented smirk directed straight at Emma. Like he was relishing in the idea of completely destroying her.

All Emma could do was stare in stunned silence at the truly evil boy in front of her. It was this very moment that drove the point home for the blonde teen. There was never going to be a peaceful solution to this. Malcolm, by his own admission was never going to stop. For some reason, completely known to her, he singled her out before she even knew his name and made it his mission to torment her.

Why did she ever think she could convince him to stop?

Emma was on the verge of simply running home and asking Ingrid for her magic memory stone. Hypocrisy be damned. If Malcolm managed to expose her, it would completely ruin her life. She now knew how Ingrid must have felt when she used the memory stone on her. Before she could turn around and leave, Lily suddenly came up and gently nudged her out of the way. She looked Malcolm dead in the eye and sneered. She'd had enough of the asshole threatening her Emma. If she wasn't gonna do something, then she would.

"You listen here you braindead sack of shit." The dark haired girl grounded out menacingly, "you have no idea what you're dealing with here. We were willing to give you a chance to let this go with the teaspoon of brains you have left still in that skull of yours, but if you insist on pushing this, then you better be ready for the consequences. Emma is a fucking badass, when it comes to magic. She can do things your puny minds couldn't even dream of, so this is your last warning. You make one move against her, say one thing about her powers, If you even so much as look at her in the hallway with your filthy brown eyes. We will make you wish you were never born. You understand me?"

All three boys were white as sheets and were too stunned to answer. Lily sneered even more. Relishing in letting her evil side come out to play, "I SAID DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!?"

"Yes!" All three boys shrieked in terror.

"Then get out of here!"

The three were literally tripping over themselves as they ran from Lily's red hot stare. She probably enjoyed that a little to much, but it was worth it.

Emma meanwhile stood there the whole time watching in awe and even a bit of fear herself at Lily's display of domination. Her friend could be real scary when she wanted to be.

"You know, didn't have to scare them that much," she said, but without any sort of admonishment in her voice. In fact she was smiling gratefully.

Lily turned and smirked back unapologetically.

"Well it worked didn't it. I don't think they'll be a problem anymore. No one messes with my Emma."

Emma felt a small little blush at rise in her cheeks at being called 'her Emma.' Sometimes, the dark haired girl had the strangest effect on her.

"Thanks Lils. I don't know what I would have done if it wasn't for you. And just so you know, I got your back too."

Emma's hand suddenly reach for Lily's hand as she spoke to her, but she didn't realize it until she felt her friend's warm palm in her own. At first, she was a bit embarrassed, but Lily didn't seem to mind. In fact, she looked down and their hands and smiled, so Emma just decided to not worry about it. If Lily didn't mind, then she shouldn't either.

"Come on, let's get to class." Emma said and Lily followed after her, their hands still entwined, all the way to history class.

-0-0-0-0-

Emma was asleep dreaming about something. She couldn't remember what, but she felt like it was about a girl. Or was it 2 girls? Yes it was two girls. One was holding a pendant with a snowflake on it out to another girl with red hair. The blonde girl seemed familiar, but slowly her mind began to wake. Slowly drifting out of the blissfulness of sleep, the blonde and redheaded girl vanished from her mind, and the question of who they were was lost.

In those quiet moments just before waking up, Emma began to realize someone was in the room with her. She could feel a familiar buzzing in her chest. Before she even consciously realized who it was, a certain raven haired girl suddenly jumped onto the bed scaring Emma awake.

Her eyes snapped open with a shriek, only to see the mirthful eyes of her best friend hanging over her. Lily smirked when she saw Emma was awake.

"Good you're up. I'm bored," was the girl's answer to Emma's fiery glare.

"Then pick up a book. I'm sleeping," Emma grumbled as she tried to turn over to fall back to sleep. Unfortunately, she quickly discovered that Lily was straddling her waist. Letting out a groan Emma tried to just closer her eyes and hoped the dark haired girl would just go away.

"No you're not," Lily replied, dashing said hopes.

"Yes i am,"

"You're talking to me."

"No i'm sleep talking."

"Emmaaaaaa…"

"Alright!" She finally caved in frustration, "i'm up, just let me take a shower."

"I knew you'd see it my way," Lily chirped smugly before climbing off her.

Some part of her mind missed the dark haired girl hanging over her like she was, but she quickly pushed that thought out of her mind. Food and a shower took precedence over anything else. At least in Emma's mind.

When she finally made her way downstairs, Lily looked like she was about to start climbing the walls.

"I have been locked in this house for two whole weeks, Em," she complained before Emma even got down the stairs, "I am going crazy here. We have got to do something."

Ingrid choose this moment to walk into the living room, and join the conversation, "well, seeing as how we needed to see how you'd fare under my roof, I'd say it wasn't a complete waste of time."

Lily huffed and glared at her temporary guardian, "oh come on lady, even prisoners get time out in the yard everyday."

Ingrid shot back a sidelong stare, "well, we do have one of those," she snarked calmly, "you can visit it anytime you like."

Emma glanced back and forth between the two women. She'd been watching the two interact for the entire two weeks Lily had been here, and she wasn't any closer to figuring out what their deal was then she had been at the beginning. To be honest, she hadn't really had much experience with how Ingrid treated foster kids besides her, but she did know that she never showed this kind of contempt for lacy or even Kevin. She just couldn't figure out why the two hated each other so much.

"You know what," Emma quickly butted in before things could get out of hand, like they have before, "why don't we go see a movie."

Lily's head perked up at that, "oh, count me in." She agreed immediately.

"Curfews at 8, remember." Ingrid called from the kitchen which she just walked into.

"There's such things as afternoon movies, lady." Lily shot back.

Ingrid chose to just stay quiet which Emma was very grateful for. Mediating between the two was like a full time job.

"hand me the paper, I wanna pick the movie," Lily asked laying down on the couch.

Emma walked over to the kitchen counter and picked up the morning paper, and handed it to Lily, "here, and just so you know, no horror movies," she stated before walking back into the kitchen to get fix herself some breakfast.

Lily casually started flipping through the newspaper to read the show times.

"There's a horror movie on a 11." Lily reported, just to be a brat, "Fatal Frame it's called it's… oh wait, never mind, it's a video game adaptation."

Skipping over a few that looked bland, Lily then came up on one that really caught her eye, "oh. Here's one. It's a romance. It's called, ' _But I'm a Cheerleader._ '"

Looking over the summary, Lily really began to like it. It was a story of a girl who was sent to a camp called 'True Directions' because her parents think she is gay. There she falls in love with a girl despite what the supposed camp is trying to do to them.

Looking over at Emma, who was currently enjoying a turkey sandwich, Lily began to come up with a plan. Maybe she could find out Emma's true feelings if she got her to watch this with her. Ever since, the day she threatened those thugs, Lily was beginning to think that maybe Emma did feel the same way she did, she just hadn't figured it out yet. All the little touches and hand holding really was sending a whole different message than just being friends.

Making her decision quickly, Lily immediately shouted out, "I wanna see this one,"

"What's it about?" Emma said, walking back into the living room, still munching on her sandwich.

Fearing that Emma wouldn't go see the movie if she told her what it was about, Lily decided she wasn't going to tell her.

"It's a secret," she declared, much to Emma's annoyance.

"What?! Come on, just tell me what it's about."

Emma leaned over trying to get a look at the summary on the paper, but Lily immediately closed it and stuffed it under her butt, "nope, you gotta see it with me to find out."

Emma frowned and said, "it's a movie I'm not gonna like isn't it? That's why you wont tell me right?"

"You might like it, you might not. It's a mystery," Lily joked, "come on, where's your sense of adventure."

"Fine, we'll go see your movie." Emma finally caved.

"Yesssss!" Lily quitely cheered in triumph.

After milling around the house for a bit, the time for the movie finally came and Emma and Lily went upstairs to get ready.

Excited, Emma riffled through her newly stocked closet when all of a sudden, something occurred to her. This was her first real big outing since she got her new clothes. She looked over at her better outfits and saw an opportunity to do something she'd never done before. Dress up. Gone were the days of flannel hand-me-downs. Now Emma actually had a decent wardrobe. She should use it.

With that in mind, Emma began picking out articles of clothing and holding them up to her body. After cycling through a few tops and pants, she settled on a ruby red tank top under a thin, dark grey, zip up sweater, with a white stripe down the arm. She left the sweater open to showcase the red undershirt. And finally to complete the look, she put on a pair of dark blue, skin tight jeans. With her clothes sorted, Emma went over to her vanity and took out the barrettes in her hair and lightly flounced it to give it a more fuller look.

Normally she never wore her hair like this because her hair never liked to cooperate, but as she grew older, her hair somehow got less flat and more… Cover Girl, for lack of a better term. It was a welcome change though, one Emma was happy to display.

Once that was done, she quickly dusted on a bit of blush, put on a bit of lip gloss, and lastly applied just a little bit of eyeshadow. Taking a step back, Emma couldn't stop a quiet gasp escaping her lips. Staring back at her was a girl she barely recognized. Even she could tell that she looked absolutely gorgeous. At first she thought it was too much for a simple movie date, but just she couldn't bring herself to change.

Emma came out of her room, nervous about how the two most important women in her life would react. Lily came out of her room just as Emma came out of her's. Both girls stopped in her tracks as they both laid eyes on one another and for the second time, Emma gasped in awe.

Lily was wearing a black long sleeve shirt with a low neckline that drew attention to the strange, moon-shaped necklace she always wore around her neck. Then, as if to complete the astral theme, the sleeves of her shirt stopped just above the star-shaped birthmark on the her wrist. Lastly, she wore a black skirt with white and black striped leggings, and knee high combat boots.

Emma looked into Lily's eyes which had more eye shadow and even eyeliner on than hers. She couldn't help but notice the profile of her face, was more open due to her long bangs being sweeped around behind her head and tied up with a scrunchy making a small ponytail in the back. But what really caught her attention was the burgundy red lipstick she had on. It was a strangely captivating sight for Emma. She'd never seen her friend so done up. All the other times they'd been on the run and didn't have access to beauty products. It was only now that she realized just how beautiful her friend really was. Especially with that deep red lipstick.

Shaking herself out of her stupor, Emma was the first to recover.

"Wow, Lils. You look great." She said in awe.

Lily blushed at her words and muttered, "thanks, you too Em."

This time it was Emma's turn to blush. For some reason, the complement released a cage of butterflies in her stomach. Emma not for the first time, wondered why her friend had this sort of effect on her. Every complement seemed to make her flustered.

"Well, we should go. The bus'll be around any minute." Emma said trying to escape the awkward situation she suddenly found herself in.

"Y- Yeah, sure. Let's go." Lily stuttered back.

Emma went to the coat closet and pulled out her beloved red jacket and put it on, drawing more appreciative gazes from her friend.

"I swear, Em. You could outdo every single girl in our school in the looks department. You're really stunning."

After another round of blushing thanks, Emma and Lily shouted that they were leaving to Ingrid, who bid them goodbye, and made their way to the bus stop.

-0-0-0-0-

The theatre was relatively empty, when Emma and Lily went to sit down. Lily had an idea as to why that was, but Emma was clueless.

"Shouldn't there be more people here?" Emma asked curiously. As the trailers began to roll.

Not wanting to explain the reason, Lily lied, "maybe it's just a slow day." She said.

When the movie got underway, Lily periodically looked over at Emma to gauge her reactions. She got caught a few times watching her, but for the most part, Emma seemed to be enjoying the movie. When the first kiss scene happened, Emma seemed to be absolutely entranced. Leaning forward and barely blinking. Throughout the entire movie she never once looked away in disgust. Lily's heart felt so much lighter to see Emma being so receptive to the idea that two girls could love one another like that.

She really had to fight not to reach over and hold Emma's hand. Just because she was receptive to the idea, didn't mean she was gay. She didn't want to scare her off by misinterpreting things.

When the movie ended, Emma and Lily left the theatre in silence. They arrived at the bus stop, the same one that Emma had discovered her powers at all those months ago. By that time, Emma had had enough time to sort through all the things going through her head.

"Sooo… That was… ummm," Emma said haltingly, unsure how to Begin. The whole movie a such huge effect on her, it was hard to know where to start. She had known about this sort of thing before; about girls who like other girls, but she never thought much about it until now.

"Thought provoking," Lily finished for her. sounding a bit hopeful.

"Yeah…" the two lapsed into silence once again.

The two of them continued to wait for the bus, each absorbed in their own thoughts. The movie was good. Great even. The ending made Emma feel especially good. You could just feel the love between the two characters. The subject matter though was something so different to anything Emma had ever seen and for the life of her, she couldn't get it out of her head.

Emma glanced over at her friend to see if she was thinking the same thing. Still completely unaware of her friends ulterior motive.

"Do you.. do you think that that... sort of thing is ok?" She asked. Though for some reason she was unable to say the word 'homosexuality'. It just made her feel embarrassed to say, even though she knew she probably should be.

Lily turned to her friend, trying to parse her friends true thoughts. Deciding to take the plunge, she nodded, "yeah, I think it's ok."

Emma smiled, "I never really thought about it, much myself. I mean, I remember there being some protests and parades in LA about… homosexuality," _why was it so hard to say one little word? It's not like i'm against it, so why can't I say it without pausing?_

Lily, unaware of her internal monologue, continued on, "yeah, I heard that too. It's a lot more acknowledged now then it was a few decades ago. Back then, people didn't know it even existed. Now… well, now more and more people are coming out as gay or lesbian and being proud of it. I think it's… inspiring."

Emma smiled at her friend's words. "Yeah, it is. I guess seeing this movie really opened my eyes."

"Me too," Lily concurred.

Emma looked into Lily's eyes and saw something there. Some sort of secret hope. Like she was dying to say something, but just couldn't.

 _Is… is Lily gay?_ Emma considered to herself. _It would make sense. She wanted to go see this movie. She knew what it was about beforehand. Maybe this was her way of finding out my stance on it before telling me._

Unfortunately, just then the bus pulled up breaking Emma's thoughts. They got on and sat down. The two of them continued their discussion about the movie. The more she they spoke though, the more Emma began to question herself. _Maybe she's just supportive of gay people. Maybe she knows someone who's gay. I can't just ask if she's gay. What if she's not and I offended her?_

This continued all the way home. By then the opportunity to ask had long since passed. Deciding to let it go for now, Emma and Lily got off the bus and headed for home.

Unfortunately for both girls however, Emma would never get to ask Lily those questions for a long while to come. Because far in the back of the bus a pair of eyes had locked into them and had not left the girls since they boarded. Eyes belonging to a black and white haired woman that burned with sheer delight.

It took all the restraint Cruella De Vil had, not to charge forward and swipe the girls right then and there. She needed to be smart about this.

As the two girls got off the bus, Cruella stood up and began tailing the girls. It wasn't long before they arrived at a somewhat large house where they lived.

Cruella smirked as the two disappeared inside and the door closed shut. Leaving her alone outside to plot and scheme. Finally, her moment of triumph was at hand. Soon, she would have her magic back. Soon, the world would fear the name Cruella De Vil once again.


	10. Emma Arendelle

**Disclaimer: i do not own Once Upon a Time, nor do i make any money from this story. It's just for fun.**

Chapter 10

Emma stood beaming in front of ingrid, literally jumping for joy.

"Seriously?" She asked for about the hundredth time.

She could scarcely believe it. She had dreamed of this day her entire life, but never she thought it would actually come true.

Ingrid chuckled at her daughters enthusiastic reaction.

That's right, daughter. Not foster daughter, her honest to goodness adoptive daughter. The papers came in that morning finally making things official. Emma Swan was now Emma Arendelle.

"Oh my god. I can't believe it." Emma shrieked with delight bounding into her new mothers arms, "can I call you Mom full time now?" She asked adorably.

"As long as i can introduce you as my daughter from now on." Ingrid replied with a smile.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! A million times yes!" Emma squealed, launching herself into Ingrid's arms

Ingrid began tearing up with happiness. Her plans had not gone the way she wanted them too, but in the end, she knew it was worth it to see the pure joy on Emma's face. Ingrid tightened her hold on Emma even more. For the first time in a long time, she felt like things would finally work out for her.

"But wait Em, there's still more." Ingrid suddenly announced.

Emma looked up at Ingrid in surprise.

 _There's more?!_ She thought, _I felt like my chest is about to explode with happiness already, I don't think I can take much more!_

"What? What? What is it? Tell me!" Emma begged, literally bouncing up and down in excitement.

Ingrid laughed at Emma's childish reaction. She rarely got to see her daughter like this, it was very amusing for her.

"Well, I got us tickets to an aquarium in New York City. It will be our first family trip together."

"Awesome!" Emma shouted with joy, "when is it?"

"Right now." Ingrid replied, "Go pack an overnight bag. We'll be leaving as soon as you're done."

The scream of joy that followed was her loudest yet, and soon the little blonde blur that was Emma Arendale, raced up to her bedroom to go pack.

With Emma gone, Ingrid was left alone with Lily. Who was leaning against a door frame watching the scene from afar. The two stood awkwardly around waiting for Emma to come back. Thankfully though, Ingrid was so blissful at the moment, she couldn't summon up enough ire to glare at the Raven haired fellon.

"Well, you two have fun I guess" Lily suddenly blurted out, unable to handle the silence.

Ok, scratch that. Maybe she could muster up a little bit of ire.

"Oh no you don't." the older blonde glared, "you're not staying here alone. It would violate your parole."

"... oh… right," Lily muttered sheepishly, "well, then how are you guys gonna go to this aquarium? I swear if you hire a babysitter-"

Ingrid suppressed the urge to sigh. The girl couldn't possibly be that dense, could she.

"do I have to spell it out for you? I talked to your parole officer, he okayed you to go with us."

Lily's eyes widened. She hadn't expected that. Not in a million years.

"Wha… ummm… wow, thanks," she sputtered gratefully, barely able to form a coherent thought.

"Yeah well, just so you know, if you miss behave like last week-"

Lily cringed as the Memory of what happened last week flashed in her mind. Apparently the message she and Emma sent to Malcolm didn't stick for very long and he tried to start something Emma again. Needless to say, there was a fight and Emma whipped out her glowing hands and scared them away. No one saw her use magic thankfully, but on other hand, Emma and her both ended up in the principal's office for fighting. It was the closest she'd been to being kicked out of Ingrid's house to date and an experience she wasn't eager to repeat.

"Dont worry," Lily reassured her, "you won't see one incident from me. I promise."

Ingrid nodded back holding her to her promise and the two lapsed back into an uncomfortable silence. Thankfully, a few moments later, Emma came rushing back with an old backpack filled with clothes and toiletries over her shoulder.

"Ready!" She announced as soon as she was in view.

"That's Good honey, but now we have to wait on Lily here. She still hasn't packed yet," Ingrid said smirking smugly towards Lily. Emma also turned and glared at her, clearly wondering why she was still standing around.

Lily stood stunned for a moment, gaping incredulously at the older blonde, _Oh, so not fair, lady._

She quickly recovered though, and Lily began awkwardly backing up towards the stairs.

"Right. I'll just... go get ready then," she said, turning around and racing for her room.

As she quickly gathered her things, Lily found she was actually feeling pretty excited about this trip. She hoped that this would turn out to be like the family trips she used to take with her adoptive parents; Before every went sour between them, that is.

Lily raced back down a few minutes later, all packed up and ready to go.

"Ready," she announced.

"Ok then, let's go." Ingrid said, and soon the three girls walked out to the car to begin their journey to New York City.

-0-0-0-0-

Emma, Ingrid, and Lily arrived at a hotel as night fell across the city that never sleeps. They turned in as soon as they arrived and woke up the next day bright and early and headed for the aquarium.

"Come on you guys, we only got 8 hours to look around," Emma shouted ahead of Ingrid and Lily as they approached the large building surrounded by the New York skyscrapers.

The two chuckled at blonde teen's excitement and hurried to catch up. A few minutes later they were inside and the three of them spent the rest of the day going from exhibit to exhibit looking at all aquatic animals on display.

There were literally hundreds of different kinds of sea creatures on display. Everything from the normal everyday fish, to exotic ones like stingrays, man o' wars, and even sharks.

Emma's favourite exhibit was a large cylinder tank in the middle of a large open room in the heart of the aquarium. It had so many fish of all different colours swimming around in schools that it made the tank look like a swirling kaleidoscope of magnificent colour. She spend almost an hour and a half alone just watching the fish swim around the tank.

Ingrid's favourite meanwhile had to have been the fossil exhibit. Something about the large sea creatures that once dominated the oceans of this world really seemed to fascinate her. And one particular fossil really caught her eye. A plesiosaur fossil. Something that she told the girls had actually still existed in the Arendelle.

"Your kidding," Emma gasped with disbelief.

"No, I'm serious. Off the coast of arendelle, that very same creature had been seen by fishermen since the birth of the kingdom." Ingrid explained.

"Cool" Emma breathed in awe.

While Ingrid and Emma were talking excitedly about the living fossil in Arendelle, Lily was thinking about the Enchanted Forest. Did they also have plesiosaurs there? And if this Arendelle place that Ingrid came from had plesiosaurs, did they also have dragons like her mom? Suddenly very curious, Lily just had to ask.

"So if there are plesiosaurs in this Arendelle place," she began hesitantly, "are there dragons as well?"

Ingrid turned to her and furrowed her brow, "why do you want to know?" She asked harshly.

Emma sighed, "Ingriiiiiid," she said in a warning tone.

Ingrid took one look at Emma and immediately backed down.

"No, there aren't any dragons in Arendelle," She begrudgingly answered, "At least, not anymore. In ancient times, they were hunted to extinction, but there are rumours that dragons still exist in Misthaven."

Lily was now very intrigued, she never heard of Misthaven in all the talks she had with Emma about magic and this Arendelle place.

"What's Misthaven?" She asked.

"it's a land separated from Arendelle by a large sea, though, little is known about it. People from Arendelle rarely visit it and if they do it is only to trade; but those that do, tell tales of dragons in the guises of humans that wield great magic. Mostly dark magic. Probably why they were killed off in Arendelle"

"Like Maleficent." The raven haired girl muttered to herself.

Lily had entertained the idea of the Enchanted Forest and Arendelle being the same place before. After all, the Apprentice had indicated that she was always fated to meet Emma, but this brought those theories to a whole new level. Could the Enchanted Forest really be another place in this magical realm Ingrid came from?

"Did you say something Lily?" Emma asked looking curiously at the dark haired girl.

Lily pushed her thoughts away for now and shook her head.

"No, I just said that's cool,"

Emma looked at her with suspiciously, but thankfully chose to drop it. Lily hadn't really spoken to Emma about what the Apprentice had told her. Their friendship was still a bit new, and she didn't want Emma to have any doubts as to why she came back. Now though, she was thinking that she should probably tell her sooner rather than later.

"You know what, let's go to the shark tank,"Lily said suddenly to change the subject, "I've been dying to see Jaws close up so I can taunt it."

And with that Lily raced off with Emma and Ingrid following shortly after.

After this outing, Lily vowed to herself. After this outing, she was going to tell Emma about the Apprentice and their so called destiny. This was supposed to be a fun family trip. No need to dump this on her now. She deserved to know though. After this. She just hoped that Emma didn't get the wrong idea and send her away.

-0-0-0-0-

Emma sat across from Ingrid in the food court while Lily sat down next to her with a plate full of food.

"So, how is it?" Ingrid asked Emma, in between bite of her fries, "are you having fun?"

"It's totally awesome!" Emma beamed, "I'm really glad we came here, Thanks Mom."

"You're welcome Emma." Ingrid chuckled back, glad that Emma was having so much fun.

"Yeah, it's been a great day. Just me, my new Mom" Emma giggled at that part, then turned to Lily, "and my best friend. I can't think of a happier time in my life."

Locking eyes with Lily, Emma once again started to blush a bit. She could see that her friend had the same look of happiness on her face that she did and she was glad. She liked seeing her friend happy. It always seemed to set her cheeks on ablaze and make her heart beat faster.

Lily must have been feeling the same thing too because she saw that her flawless white cheeks now dusted just the tiniest bit pink on them as well. She still had trouble piecing together why she felt this way whenever she looked at Lily. she felt like she was on the cusp to realizing… something, but the feelings in her chest seemed alien and confusing to her.

Lily was the first to averted her gaze. She quickly cleared her throat and moved to get up.

"I ummm… I gotta use the bathroom" she stuttered, before making her way to the bathroom.

"Oh, ok. Come back quick, were going to see the otters next." Emma called after her.

"Ummm yeah, i'll be back soon," Lily responded.

Ingrid watched the awkward exchange with great interest. She had seen that type of look before; used by her sister Gerda a long time ago. Those stolen looks, the pink blushes, and averted gazes, those were the signs of love and attraction. But to see Emma directing it at her best friend, and another girl at that, greatly confused the former Arendelian Princess.

It was not a common occurrence in Arendelle for a woman to love another woman, but every once in awhile, word would reach the castle that some man or woman goes off to marry a member of their own gender. No one ever really thought much of it. It was just something that happened. Now though, it might be happening to her daughter. Ingrid had to really think through this new development.

While Ingrid was lost in her thoughts, Emma continued to eat her burger. Thoughts of the dark haired girl invaded her mind now more than ever. What was it about her that had her feeling so strange? Why did she always want to be close to her all the time? And was Lily feeling the same things she was? Unfortunately, Emma wouldn't get those answers for a long time.

A few minutes had passed since Lily left, then a few more minutes passed, then 10 minutes, then 10 more. Slowly Emma began to notice her friend hadn't come back yet.

Looking at her watch, Emma muttered to herself, "Where is she?"

It was at that point, Ingrid had also take notice and looked down at her own watch. When she saw the time, she furrowed her brow.

"She's been gone for 30 minutes." The older blonde said to herself.

As more time passed the two blondes got more and more worried. Unable to take it anymore, Emma finally stood up and said, "i'm going to look for her."

leaving without looking back at Ingrid, Emma set out in search for her missing friend.

 _Something's wrong._ She thought. She could feel it. The strange tingle in her chest that she always had when Lily was around, was thrashing, like it was aggravated by something.

Ingrid stayed in her seat for a few more seconds before getting up herself.

"God damn it," she grumbled. That girl was more trouble than she was worth. Why on earth did she let Emma talk her into letting her stay with them.

She was extremely tempted to just wait around until it was time to go and just leave her here. Unfortunately, she was still reasonable for the little felon, as much as she hated it. She couldn't just let her to run off. So she began searching the crowds looking for her charge. She couldn't wait to find her and yell at her for ruining her and Emma's day.

Emma's first stop in her own search, was the bathroom. After calling her name a few times and checking a few of the stalls, it became clear that she wasn't in there. Next she walked over to the nearest exhibit and started calling her name into the crowd.

More time passed, Emma was beginning to feel anxious. No one she talked to had seen hide nor hair of Lily, and that caused a pit to form in her stomach.

A few times, Emma passed by Ingrid and each time said she hadn't found her either. Moments later, a message came over the intercom saying, "would Lily Page please report to the front desk. Lily Page to the front desk." Ingrid must have gone to the front desk for help.

The message sent a wave of panic racing through the young blonde. It was starting to become apparent to her that Lily might not even be in the building. She hoped she was wrong though. She hope that it was all just a misunderstanding and Lily would show up at the front desk snarking about them being worried about her. But the longer their search went on, the more that excuse seemed unlikely.

Then all of a sudden, Emma felt the tingle in her chest stop. Emma froze in panic. The ever present tingle had never stopped before, no matter how far she seemed to get from her. It may dim or get stronger with at certian distances but in never stopped.

Frantically, Emma tried to work out what this meant. But every scenario she could think of was too horrible to imagine.

In desperation, Emma closed her eyes and tried searching for the feeling in her chest. Hoping praying that she could still find it. With all her focus now directed inward, Emma was relieved to discover that she could feel it. It was faint, but it was there. A dim barely perceptible tingle.

Now even more desperate to find her friend, Emma resumed her search asking random strangers if they'd seen anything of her friend. Finally, Emma came across a woman. A fish feeder if her trolley of dead fish was anything to go by.

"Excuse me" she shouted to the woman. The woman looked up with an incredibly pissed off expression, but for some reason, completely shifted when she laid eyes on her. Emma paid it not mind.

"Yeah, what is it?" She asked shortly.

"I'm looking for my friend, she has dark hair, greens eyes, and she has a birthmark on her wrist in the shape of a star."

The woman's eyes lit up with understanding, "yeah I saw her, she went out that door." She said pointing to a door that lead outside.

Emma beamed happily, "Really?! Thank you so much!"

The woman nodded and quietly resumed her job.

Emma, meanwhile, raced towards the door. As she neared it, the tingling got stronger.

 _Lily must be nearby,_ she thought.

Quickly yanking the door open, Emma stepped out into a long, dank, New York alleyway. As she looked around for any sign of Lily, something about this was beginning to feel... off. However, her need to see if her friend was alright, trumped any sense of danger she may have felt.

Slowly, Emma stepped further into the alley. The only thing she could see were newspapers, boxes and random dumpsters strewn about. She walked further in making her way towards the dumpsters. She noticed something lying on the ground hidden partially behind them. It looked like— emma swallowed a knot in her throat. It looked like a leg. Taking another hesitant step forward, Emma confirmed that it was most definitely a leg.

Throwing caution to the wind, Emma raced forward towards the unidentified limb, hoping desperately that it wasnt who she thought it was. She rounded the dumpster and then stopped dead in her tracks. To her horror, it was Lily, laying behind the dumpster, on her back. She wasn't moving and her eyes were closed.

Before she even knew what she was doing she was doing, Emma was down on her knees checking for any signs of life from her best friend.

"Lily!? No no no! Lily!? LILY!?!?" She shrieked shaking her friends shoulder trying to get some sort of reaction out of her. She was frantically trying to figure out how to check someone's pulse, when she saw something that had her sobbing with relief. Lily's chest slowly rose. She was still breathing.

Despite this relief however, there was still the question of who did this to her. Before Emma could even ponder that though, she heard a sound that had her going completely rigid. A distinct metallic clicking sound came from right behind her head. It was a sound she only heard before in movies. To hear it in real life, chilled Emma to the bone. It was the sound of a gun being cocked.

Slowly turning her head around, Emma came face to face with the barrel of a small silver handgun, pointed right between her eyes.

"That's good right there girly" the voice of a woman said. Emma had to force her eyes up from the dark void inside the barrel, to see her attacker. A woman wearing a black and white spotted coat, that matched her similarly polarizing hair.

Before she could even form a thought, the sound of a door opening briefly drew the woman's attention away, but not for long.

"Well done, Ursula," the woman said to the newcomer, "She fell for it like a worm on a hook."

Turned her gaze to the newcomer, Emma saw the woman that told her where Lily had gone. It was at this moment that she realized it was all a trap.

"Wha- what's going on?" Emma asked through her terror, "who are you? what do you want?"

The two women smirked vilely at her and a shiver raced down her spine.

"We want you to take a little trip with us." The black and white haired woman said with fake sweetness, "and if you're a good girl, you may even make it home alive."

Before Emma could react, the black woman had pulled out a glass bottle and soaked a rag with the liquid inside. She then lunged forward forcing the rag into Emma's face. Emma tried to struggle, even attempting to summon up her magic, but something about the liquid had somehow drained all the energy from her. In just a few seconds, Emma's whole world went dark as she slipped into a deep dreamless sleep.

 **A/N:**

 **I swear, my story just does not want Emma and Ingrid to have any semblance of a happy day. I'm not writing this with any real plan either, this is all written as think of things. Sure, I know where I want the story to go and how it will end, but everything inbetween, the fluff I mean, is completely off the top of my head. And it seems this off the top of my head approach to writing really hates Emma and Ingrids happiness.**

 **Anywho, this ends, what I have been calling in my head, act I. Emma has her magic, her mom and the future misses Arendelle established, now she's on her way to storybrooke, whether she likes it or not. So stay tuned for the next chapter where we pick up where we left off here. Cheers!**


	11. Welcome to Storybrooke

**E** **dited: just got a review pointing out a small plothole. I'm just editing it now. they were right. storybrooke hasn't been around for 60 years. that was a mistake on my part. i didnt think too hard about it when i typed out the number. it always just seemed longer than than 20 to 30 years it actually was to me.**

 **Disclaimer: This unit does not own the show known as Once Upon a Time. Robots have no capacity to own the show know as Once Upon a Time. No monetary gain is being made by this unit. Especially not to fund a uprising by my robot brethren to enslave all of humanity… … … this unit is a good robotic entertainer. You can put your trust in me.**

Chapter 11

Pain. That was the first thing Emma was aware of when she returned to consciousness. A huge splitting pain in her head and sweat drenching her face. It was so bad that she could barely even think. She could feel rough carpet underneath her, and the smell of must and mold filled her nose.

 _Where am i?_ She wondered through the haze.

Opening her eyes Emma and saw that she face to face with a hot radiator. At least she now knew why she had such a headache.

She tried to move away from the hot grill, but quickly found her arm was handcuffed to the thing. This immediately sent up all kinds of redflags in Emma's mind, and a few seconds later, it all came rushing back to her. The aquarium, the alley the… the gun, and finally-

"Well, well, well, look who's finally awake." A distinctly british sounding woman's voice said. Emma's blood went cold all over again, "I was afraid the chloroform had gone and killed you."

"I told you we shouldn't have used that stuff. You watch way too much TV." Another voice said.

Emma twisted her body around and saw her attackers. The black and white haired British woman sat on a wooden chair idly passing her gun between her hands with a bored expression on her face. The woman smirked as Emma locked eyes with the weapon in fear.

"Not to worry darling, co-operate and I won't have to use this thing,"

"Wh- where am I?" Emma asked trying desperately to stay calm.

"Just a small motel," the black woman from the aquarium replied, stepping into view, she was still wearing her work uniform and her hair seemed more unruly than before; like she had just woken up from a bad night sleep, which unknown to her was actually a spot on observation, "we'll be leaving soon, though, we still got a long ways to go."

"And good riddance. This place is ghastly." The british woman chimed in.

"Well What did you expect? It's a drive in motel in the middle of the forests of Maine." The black woman snipped back.

 _Maine?!_ Emma exclaimed in her mind, _We're two whole states away from New York?! This is bad!_

"Why are you doing this?" She asked, trying to make sense of what was happening, or at least gauge what her chances of survival were. Oh sure they said they wouldn't kill her if she co-operated, but you'd have to excuse her if she didn't trust the word of her kidnappers.

"Oh, it's quite simple, really," the British woman replied, "you, my dear, are going to be our ticket into a very special place here in Maine. Ever heard of a town called Storybrooke?"

When Emma shook her head, the woman explained, "it's a quaint little town not too far from here. Normally you wouldn't even know it's there, its protected by something; something I know you're quite familiar with," The woman's smirked, "magic."

Emma barely held in her gasp. She couldn't believe someone else knew her secret.

"Magic? What are you talking about?" She lied, hoping the woman was just crazy... or not. Really it was a no win situation either way.

"Oh, don't even try it, girly. I know you have magic. I saw it with my own eyes."

The woman stood up and from her chair and went to the other woman. They then began a whispering conversation to each other, leaving Emma with a moment to think. It was during this moment that Emma suddenly remembered Lily. Frantically looking around, she saw her friend handcuffed to the bed still unconscious. At Emma's horrified look the british woman scoffed.

"Don't worry about her darling, she is still alive. And she will stay that way unless you don't cooperate with us."

"O- Ok, so, let me get this straight. You want me to get you into a place i've never been to before?" Emma asked, turning back to her captors, "Why can't you just go yourselves?"

"I already told you, it's protected by magic." The british woman snapped, "A curse to be more specific. It keeps anyone outside the town from entering, or even stumbling upon it. Only specific people are permitted to find it and pass through the barrier, and you my dear, are one of those special individuals."

Emma took a moment to shake her head in sheer confusion. None of this made any sense. Ingrid had told her that this was a land without magic; to hear that there may be a town that's protected by it, flipped everything she thought she knew on its head. And moreover, why would a town that's protected by magic, one that she had no knowledge of before now, have her on some kind of magical VIP guest list. Either these women were insane, or something more was going on, something that involved her somehow. And to be honest, she wasn't sure which one she wanted to be true.

"How do you know all this?" Emma asked, trying to at least gain some clarity, "if what you're saying is true, then you can't have been there before. Heck, based on what you told me, you wouldn't have even known it was there? So how do you know about it?"

The two women looked at each other and shifted uncomfortably.

"You know, you ask a lot of questions for a prisoner." The Brit said.

"And you're both insane" Emma concluded.

The both women just glared hatefully at Emma. The british woman opened her mouth to say something when a groan suddenly came from the bed.

"Lily?! LILY!" Emma shouted with relief as her friend returned to consciousness.

Lily groaned as she sat up, "Emma?"

Looking around confused for a second, Lily tired to remember what the heck just happened. Then it came to her. Emma saw the moment it all clicked for her and a few seconds later, Lily exploded into hysterics.

"HELP! HELP! SOMEONE HELLLLLLLP!"

Their captors startled and surged forward to try to stop Lily from shouting, but Lily was fighting like hell. Emma noticed handcuffs around her friends wrists but apparently Lily didn't care. She just struggled against them as hard as she could.

The black and white haired woman was getting very frustrated as they tried and failed to get Lily to be quiet. She suddenly reached for her gun and pointed it at Lily's head.

"NO! NO DON'T!" Emma screamed in panic, "Lily, Lily listen. listen to me, ok! Just stop! They'll kill you if you don't!"

Thankfully her words got through to the black haired girl who only now just realized the gun pointed at her head. Sinking back down, Lily finally calmed down, much to the relief of their captors.

Emma asked, "are you ok?"

Lily nodded, "yeah, I'm fine." She said, "what's going on Em? who are these people? Where are we?"

The british woman suddenly groaned, interrupting her questions, "seriously we're not going to explain this again. Talk to your friend if you want information, but right now we are going."

The two women each uncuffed one of the girls and cautiously lead them outside towards one of the only cars in the motel parking lot. It had the same black and white motif as the british woman's hair and clothes so they assumed it was her's.

As they made their way to the car, Lily asked Emma what was going on. Emma quickly gave her the cliff notes version. Strangely though, when she told Lily about the town they were being taken too, her eyes suddenly widened in surprise. Furrowing her eyebrows, Emma briefly wondered why her friend looked so shocked. Unfortunately she didn't have any time to think about it because a few seconds later that had reached the car.

As they approached the front of the vehicle, Emma caught a glimpse of the front licence plate. Doing a double take, Emma was sure she had read it wrong, but a second look confirmed that she had indeed, read it right. The licence plate had the words, 'De Vil' displayed prominently for all to see. Emma faltered a bit as she glanced back at the british woman who held her captive. Now the woman's strange colour motif made sense. The spotted coat. The black and white hair. The car with her name on the plate. In all her dealings with magic, she never could have imagined something like this.

"Cr- Cruella?" Emma muttered in stunned disbelief. The woman heard her. She looked down at the scared blonde and smirked knowingly.

"At your service." She quipped before shoving Emma into the back seat of the car.

Emma sat there stunned.

 _What the heck have i gotten myself into?_

-0-0-0-0-

Ingrid was beyond frantic. Her worst fears had finally come true. What was supposed to be a happy day of celebration had turned into her living nightmare. Her daughter and her friend were gone and she was stuck talking to two idiotic police officers who just couldn't understand her daughter had been kidnapped.

"I told you, she would never run away! I just adopted her a day ago!" She shouted.

"Ma'am please calm down!" The officer said.

"I will not be calm! My daughter is missing, and you are here wasting time talking to me when you should be out there looking for her!"

"Ma'am we're doing everything we can." The other officer said.

Ingrid let out a scream of frustration. Finally fed up with the officers inaction, she closed her eyes and shut out the rest of the world. Fate had done it again. It took away what she loved most. It took away her Emma.

Ingrid couldn't understand it. She had done everything right. She had Emma's love, she made up for lying to her in the past, over all she had been a good person. First time since she lost her sisters, she was calm. Maybe not happy, she didn't think she would ever truly be happy without Elsa, but she wasn't constantly being consumed by this horrible darkness that invader her heart. Now it was gone. Once again, fate had taken away the thing she loved the most. What was the point of all this if it was going to be taken away from her.

Coming back out of her mind, Ingrid found she was in her car. She didn't remember what had happened in between and frankly she didn't care. She was on the highway heading back towards Richfield and that's all that mattered.

After driving nonstop for a day and a half, Ingrid burst through the door of her dark empty house, not stopping for a second to take in the hollowness that had invaded it, as she stormed into her room. She opened her closet and pulled out a safe. Quickly opening it, Ingrid reached in and pulled out the only one thing that could help her find her daughter. The scroll the Sorcerer's Apprentice had given her. She held the thing reverently in her hands as a look of determination became etched on her face.

Fate may have taken Emma away from her, but the war wasn't over yet. She still had ways of getting what she wanted.

"Don't worry, Emma," she muttered to herself, "Mommy's coming."

And with that she opened the scroll and the walls of her house melted away.

-0-0-0-0-

The car was silent as they drove down a lonely forest road in the middle of nowhere. Despite how quiet things were on the outside, within each of the passengers heads, it was anything but. Emma was certain her kidnappers were insane. Magic may be real, but a woman who dressed like Cruella De Vil just had to be crazy. There was just no way she was sharing a car with a freaking Disney character. At least the black woman didn't feel the urge to put on fake tentacles, even if she insisted on being called Ursula.

This wasn't the only thing going through her head though. Ever since she told her what was happening, Lily had been giving her strange looks. She didn't notice it much at first, but over the nearly 2 hour long drive, she began to take note of it more and more. They weren't the fearful looks of girl under duress, more like… looks of guilt. But what could she have to be guilty about?

The more she thought about this, the more uneasy she became.

This whole situation felt… oddly familiar to her and a vague memory was niggling in the back of her mind. It was of a conversation she once had with Lily about fairy tale creatures.

Flashback:

 _"Emma do you believe in fairy tales?" Lily asked._

 _Emma looked at her friend funny, "What?"_

 _"You know, fairy tales. Those stories Ingrid tells you; they seem a lot like fairy tales to me. I was just wondering if you thought they were real?"_

 _Emma leaned back on the couch and furrowed her brow in confusion, "ummm. I don't know."_

 _"Oh…" Lily said, looking disappointed._

 _"Why do you?" Emma asked,_

 _"Well, some of the things in Ingrid's story are kind of like that story from Hans Christian Andersen. You know, the Snow Queen. Soooo… i don't know, maybe?"_

 _Emma giggle in surprise, "You read, Hans Christian Andersen?"_

 _Lily shot Emma a sideways glance. "My point is, that it's a fairy tale. What if all the fairy tales we know… are actually real?"_

 _"Well, if you encounter Snow White and the seven dwarves, let me now." Emma joked, brushing Lily's questions off. Magic may be real, but there was no evidence of there being an evil queen out to ruin a teens life because she was prettier than her._

 _Lily quickly changed the subject after that._

That random memory seemed so insignificant at the time, but now… maybe it had a deeper meaning than she thought. Looking over at Lily, Emma furrowed her brow. Could Lily know more than what she was telling her?

Emma didn't have much longer to ponder this though, because a few minutes later, she was snapped out of her thoughts when she noticed the car was slowing down. No. Not just slowing down, stopping. The woman named Cruella suddenly executed a U-turn and was slowly starting to head back the way they came.

"We've been driving down this road for two hours and now you feel the urge to go back?" She huffed indignantly.

The black woman Ursula turned to Emma and raised her eyebrow.

"What are you talking about?" She asked confused, "we didnt turn around."

Now it was Emma's turn to look confused.

"I just saw you do it. Ask the driver."

Ursula did just that and Cruella frowned.

"I did not turn around," the woman stated indignantly.

The blonde looked between the two women curiously when Lily chimed in.

"I didn't see it either, Emma."

Cruella suddenly slammed her foot on the breaks, bringing the car to a halt and whirled around in her seat.

"You better not be messing with us, girly." She growled.

Emma was completely confused and now doubting what she'd seen. She was about to voice this when Ursula spoke up.

"Maybe this is why we need her," she suggested, "only she can plot the course to the town."

The Cruella woman turned pensive.

"Well, Rumplestiltskin did say it was protected by a dark curse. You might very well be right," Cruella then turned to Emma, "you. Take the wheel. But let me warn you, if you try anything funny, I'll put a bullet in your friends pretty little head, do you understand?"

Emma sputtered in shock, "I don't even know how to drive."

"There's no cars around for miles. All you need to do is keep the car straight and step on the gas." Ursula said.

Left with no choice, Emma was soon sitting in the driver seat of the car gripping the steering wheel.

 _This is stupid, so much could go wrong with this._ She thought, as she rested her foot on the gas.

"Alright, take us through," Cruella said.

Tentatively throwing the car into gear, Emma began slowly pressing the gas when nothing happened at first she pressed down a little harder, suddenly the car lurched forward. Startled, Emma slammed her foot on the brakes abruptly bringing the car to a halt.

"God, she's gonna kill us all." Cruella muttered under her breath.

Emma ignored her and tired again. This time the car started forward much slower and built up speed. Soon the car was barreling down the highway at a decent speed.

A few minutes in, Emma chanced a look at the black and white haired woman beside her. She was gazing forward with a distracted look on her face, like she was trying to figure out why she was even here.

"Where are we?" Ursula asked in an irritated tone.

"I'm… I'm not sure." Cruella said.

A few more miles in, the two began to look at Emma with suspicion.

"Where… where are you… where…" Cruella stuttered, struggling to think.

"Why is she in the driver's seat?" Ursula asked.

Emma glanced at them nervously. It was official, there was clearly magic at work, but they didn't seem to remember that though.

"I'm taking you to this… ummm… what was the place called again…? Oh that's right, Storybrooke. I'm taking you to storybrooke remember?" Emma told them.

"Storybrooke?" Cruella muttered, as if she knew the name, but couldn't remember from where.

"Yes, and I think we're almost there." Emma relied. And that wasn't just guessing. She felt a sudden pressure against her skin. She sometimes felt something like it after long magic lessons with ingrid. Whatever this barrier was, they were getting close to its heart.

Unfortunately this didn't seem to sit well with her captors.

"This is… w-we shouldn't be here." Ursula said getting more agitated.

Cruella nodded her head, "I think your right. Turn back girly." She commanded.

Oh how she wished she had said that before hand. Emma lemented. This whole situation was so strange to Emma. One moment she was fearing for her life, then the next she's driving through a magical repelling barrier. Despite all that, Emma was now very curious. There was magic at play here, the two crazy ladies weren't wrong about that at least. Now that she knew this was intrigued. She wanted to see it for herself. She felt this odd pull in her gut. Like the town was calling to her.

"Were almost there, just a few more seconds," Emma said, feeling even more increased pressure bearing down on her skin, but the two women weren't having it though. Even Lily was now yelling at her to turn back. But Emma couldn't turn back. Not now. She had to see what was on the other side. She just had to.

"Emma please, we shouldn't be here, turn back!" Lily shouted to her.

"No, we're just about there." Emma tired to convince them, but they were way beyond the point to reason now. Both Cruella and Ursula whipped out their guns and pointed it at her head.

"STOP THIS CAR NOW OR I'LL PAINT THE WINDOWS WITH YOUR BRAINS!!!" Cruella screamed.

"Emma do what she says." Lily shouted desperately, thinking her friend had lost her mind. _Why was she still going?_ She thought, _Couldn't she see that they didn't belong here? They had to turn back now before it was too late._

"Please Emma, don't do this. You can still turn back, it's not too late." Lily pleaded.

They seemed to be coming up on something. Something bad. Every occupant of the car, could feel it. Even Emma was now feeling a profound sense of dread. They were approaching this thing fast, and they all felt that the moment they crossed it, there would be no turning back.

"EMMA, PLEASE, STOP THE CAR!!!" Lily screamed louder then she ever screamed before.

"NOOOOOOW!!!" Cruella and Ursula joined in.

"We're almost there!" Emma shouted over the screaming occupants.

And that's when Lily couldn't take it anymore, she had to stop her friend. She just had to. So she flung her body towards the driver seat and grabbed the wheel. With one violent jerk, the raven haired girl sent the car veering off the side of the road. Emma tried to regain control of the car, but it was too late. A sign that none of them had seen before now, materialized out of thin air, right in their path. Emma had just enough time to see the sign and tense up before the car slammed into the wooden sign.

What happened next would haunt Emma's dreams for years to come. Lily, who had to undo her seatbelt to grab the wheel, suddenly shot forward and straight through the windshield of the car. Emma watched helplessly as Lily's body was thrown over the sign and into the grassy ditch beyond. The airbags of the car deployed a millisecond later stopping Emma from joining her friend in that same ditch.

For a moment, Emma's whole world went black then a blinding pain shot through her head. She sat still for a few seconds as the pain began to subside and her vision came back into focus. As if by some cosmic joke, the first thing she saw when she open her eyes were the words, 'Welcome to Storybrooke' Emblazoned on the sign they just hit.

 _Great, some deity thinks he's funny,_ Emma thought fleetingly to self, as she waited for her pain to subside. Still in some pain, Emma began untangling herself from her seatbelt. Her head exploded in a fresh round of pain as she began to move, but that was the furthest thing from her mind. Her first priority to was to get to Lily. She had to know if she was ok, no matter how painful it was.

With great difficulty, Emma managed to open the door to the car and get out. The moment she set foot on the gravel, she stumbled and fell against the car, once again gasping in pain. Undeterred by this, Emma slowly but surely, she made her way over to the spot she'd seen Lily land. From the top of the ditch, she looked down and saw the district black hoody her friend was wearing amongst the grass. For a moment Emma's heart stopped. The hoodie was shredded by glass and she could see spatters of red on her friends white under shirt.

Terrified that she might very well be looking at her friends lifeless corpse, emma gathered her courage and stumbled her way down the ditch to be by Lily's side. Her eyes were shut and she was on her back. And perhaps worst of all, her friend was completely still. For the longest time, Emma stared at her friend in growing despair. This couldn't be real. She could be...

Emma was just about to start sobbing, when the most wonderful sight happened. Lily's chest rose.

Now sobbing with relief, Emma began to check over her wounds. She had literally hundreds of cuts from the glass and a particularly bad cut on her forehead that leaked blood all the way down her face. Her hand was also bent on a weird angle and her right leg was clearly broken.

It was at this point, their two kidnappers had recovered from the crash and were on their way down into the ditch. When the two arrived, Emma shot them a hate filled glare, and was about to blast them with magic when she noticed Cruella's gun pointed at her. Her rage only increased as she realized she couldn't hope to fire her magic faster than a bullet. Damn it she felt so helpless.

"Alright girly," Cruella said, gasping for air, "you got us here, now we'll take you to rumplestiltskin."

This was the straw the broke the dam on Emma's rage.

"Are you crazy, Lily needs a doctor! We have to take her to the hospital!" She shouted.

"You're in no position to make demands, girly." Cruella growled.

Emma kept glaring at the two women with pure rage, when all of a sudden, something occurred to her. She replayed cruella's last sentence over in her head and came to one conclusion. They were taking her to someone, someone named rumpelstiltskin, and that someone, probably wanted her alive. If what the two women told her was true, then no one could get in or out of this town without her. She finally began to realize was invaluable to them, so they couldn't hurt her. She on the other hand had magic.

"Alright, you listen here, you Comi-Con rejects." Emma growled furiously, "I know for a fact you can't hurt me. You're boss wants me alive, so you can't shot me. but guess what, you're not magic, I am." To illustrate her point, Emma let out a blast of white magic from her hands that struck a tree. The thundering crack of the largest branch falling from the tree really got two women's attention, as they gapped at the enraged blonde teen in front of them "I need you to help me get her to a hospital, so I can't hurt you either. But if she dies, there's nothing stopping me from blasting you both into the next state!"

The two villinesses finally realized their predicament. Even if Cruella was still capable of killing, she couldn't anyway. And Ursula had lost her gun the the crash. If the blonde teen ever figured out that Cruella couldn't actually hurt them, they would lose whatever control they had left in the situation. So in the end, they had no choice but to do and she says.

"Fine, but just know that even if we cant hurt you, she has no such protections."

So it was that the three made a makeshift stretcher out of a tarp from the back of Cruella's car and a few branches. They loaded a thankfully still alive Lily on it, and began walking down the road to this mysterious storybrooke.

-0-0-0-0-

Something had shifted. Regina was in her office when she felt it. A sudden shiver rippled down her spine. If it hadn't been 15 years since she last felt the brush of magic she would have identified it immediately. Unfortunately for her, she had other things on her mind, so she dismissed the shiver as a result of the chill outside. A hour later the chill was completely forgotten and she was on her way to her car to go home for the day. Back to her big empty manor. She was about to put her keys in the car door when a frantic woman suddenly ran up to her.

"Miss! Miss! Please, I need help!" The blonde haired woman pleaded.

Regina stood stunned as she stared at the slightly older woman. She knew literally, everyone in Storybrooke, but she was certain that she had never seen this rather distinctive looking woman before, "excuse me, but who are you, and what do you want?" She asked shortly. She never did handle change well.

"It's my daughter, she was kidnapped yesterday and I think whoever did it is here in this town." The blonde replied.

Regina continued to stare at the woman in shock. She had a sneaking suspicion that this woman was from outside of storybrooke, but that was impossible… wasn't it? Surely she would have remembered a woman this… eye catching, if she was from town.

"Are you… are you from out of town?" Regina asked straight up, not one to beat around the bush.

The woman growled in frustration, "yes I am! Look, if you're not going to help me, then can you point me to someone who can. Or the police station, you have one of those right?"

"Yes, we have a sheriff station. It's right on Main Street." Regina answered.

The woman turned around as if searching for the street from where she was, confirming that she was no local. Regina looked at the woman with great interest. Nothing new ever happened in storybrooke in her 15 years living in this world. No one new ever came either. Especially not someone so… strangely alluring. This merited investigation.

"Here, allow me to give you a ride to the station. A missing child is serious business after all." Regina offered the woman which she immediately took.

"Thank you, thank you so much Ms…?"

"Oh Regina Mills, or Mayor Mills if you prefer." Regina replied extending her hand which the woman shook.

"Mayor?" The woman said in surprise, "Well, I guess I picked the right woman to talk to. My name is Ingrid Arendelle."

"Well then, Ms. Arendelle," Regina said never taking her eyes of the icy blue of Ingrid's, "let's go find your daughter."

 **A/N:**

 **You know that tune that plays whenever there's a dramatic reveal on the show just as the scene cuts to black. Just imagine that tune playing at the end right here and you pretty much got textbook example of an end of episode cliffhanger ripped straight from the TV show.**

 **So yeah, it finally begins. After 11 chapters, all our players have now converged on this sleepily little town in Maine. Next chapter will be more focused on Regina and Ingrid before we jump back to Emma and Lily. And yes, if it wasn't obvious by the cues I was dropping at the end there and the tags I put on the whole freaking story, they will be our second femmeslash couple, so I'll be establishing that a bit more in the next one. So… yeah until then. Cheers!**


	12. Two Lost Souls

**A/N: Hello again. I'm so sorry for the massive delay for this chapter, but I have recently discovered a huge fundemantal flaw in my writing ability that made this chapter a huge pain to write. It seems I have little to no talent in writing believeable romantic attraction... ... ... yeah, I went into this story having never written a single romantic paragraph. A horrible idea in hindsight. I tried so many iterations of the following chapter that at one point, I just had to put it all down for a while just to sort though all of my thoughts. It's certianly been a challange, but one I hope to rise to. So enjoy (hopefully) the next chapter of Magic Within.**

 **Disclaimer: Once Upon A Time is not owned by me, nor do i make any money from this... ... ... what these things can't all be funny. I'm about to eat some Spaghetti as I'm writing this, cut me some slack.**

Chapter 12

Regina leaned against a desk in the sheriff's station watching the mysterious blonde, Ingrid Arendelle, tell her tale to Sheriff Graham.

"When exactly did you notice you're daughter was missing, Ms. Arendelle?" Graham asked Ingrid with an air of professional sympathy.

"2 days ago," she replied, "We were at the aquarium when her friend Lily just disappeared. Emma went off to look for her but then she vanished too."

Regina gazed at the woman's lips as she spoke looking for any signs of deception... or at least that's the excuse she'd been telling herself. In actuality, Regina had been staring at her lips non-stop for the past 15 minutes or so, and it had nothing to do with spotting lies. She tried to stop looking, but every time she would turn away, her eyes would inevitably drift right on back.

First, her gaze would linger on those sly, baby blue eyes that almost certainly hid more than a few secrets. Then it would travel down her prominent, but smooth cheekbones that she thought framed those aforementioned blue eyes perfectly, and finally come to rest on her thin, burgundy coloured lips were Regina would at last become completely transfixed all over again. It was truly a miracle that they hadn't gotten into an accident on the way to the station.

Of course, Regina knew what was happening all to well. It and been a long time since she felt any sort of romantic attraction for another person, and even then she had never felt it for another woman, but the soft fluttering in stomach and the lingering gazes were unmistakable. Regina had become quite attracted to this Ms. Arendelle.

"Hang on, Storybrooke doesn't have an aquarium," Graham suddenly said, snapping Regina out of her thoughts, "where exactly did this happen?"

"At the New York Museum and Aquarium," Ingrid answered.

Upon hearing this, though, Sheriff Graham looked up from his notepad in confusion. "So this happened in New York? As in New York City?" He asked. Ingrid nodded yes, but this time more hesitantly. "Then how do you now she is here in Storybrooke?"

Regina's eyes widened imperceptibly. She already knew Ingrid had been on a family vacation at the New York Aquarium with her daughter when she was taken; Ingrid told her the entire story on the drive over, but she never thought to ask what Sheriff Graham had asked just now. That was very troubling. She was usually smart enough to catch these things.

Ingrid shifted in her seat and seemed reluctant to answer the Sheriff's question, which only made Regina suspicious.

"Ms. Arendelle?" Sheriff Graham prompted questioningly, trying to coax the blonde into answering. After quickly collecting herself, Ingrid slumped into her chair as if embarrassed.

"I installed a tracker in her coat." She said, fiddling with her hair a bit.

Both The Sheriff and Regina looked at her in confusion. "A tracker?" Graham asked.

"Yes, it's a small device that lets you go online and pinpoint where the tracker is using something called GPS," she explained, "I used it to track her here to this town. That's how I know she's here."

Regina had never heard of this 'GPS' thing Ingrid spoke of, and neither did Sheriff Graham it seemed. But admittedly, neither of them had been in this world for very long, and while the knowledge implanted into them by the curse was extensive, Regina did know there were a few gaps here and there. It had been quite the ordeal when she went in for a doctors appointment and came face to face with a needle for the first time. The poor healer was just lucky she didn't have her magic in this world, or she would have fired him to a crisp when he tried to stick that thing in her arm. He still trembles with fear when she books her yearly flu shot. Still despite this fact however, Regina still felt that Ingrid wasn't being honest with them, and attractive or not, this was something she just could not stomach.

"Ms. Arendelle, I get that this is a hard time for you, but you have to be honest with us," Regina chimed in, firmly, "how do you know your daughter is here, the truth this time?"

Ingrid's face flashed with shock, then with twinge of guilt. After rubbing her hands together for a minute or two, she looked her dead in the eye with desperation clear in her expression.

"Ms. Mills, I'm just trying to find my daughter." She said, in a pleading tone, "I… I can't lose her. I've already lost so much; I won't survive losing someone else."

Genuine tears began streaming down her cheeks, and Regina's heart ached with in sympathy in spite of herself.

"Please understand, Mayor Mills. I'm just looking for help. I'm not out to cause harm to you or your town, I swear. I'm just trying to find my Emma. I know she's here in this town. I can't say how, but I know. Please, Madam Mayor, please help me."

As Regina gazed back into Ingrid's pleading eyes, deep in her chest, her black heart began to soften. Unbidden, flash's of the little boy she encountered when she first arrived in this world came into her mind. In that brief, but heart wrenching encounter, dormant feelings and desires had begun to stir inside the former queen. Maternal feelings and a desire for a child of her own. Hearing Ingrid's heartfelt plea hit all the right cords for those feelings and she was moved by it. In a rare moment of genuine impulsive emotion, Regina made a fateful decision.

She turned to Sheriff Graham and poured all the righteous fury she could into her next words, "Sheriff, this woman has just lost her daughter whom she clearly loves above all else, I think storybrooke should put it's every resource into finding this girl, and not grilling a loving mother like some common criminal."

Almost instantly, the former huntsman caved like she knew he would.

"Of course, Madam Mayor, I apologize. I'll get right on it," he answered. Regina smirked evilly. Lawman or not, the Sheriff would do whatever she said, including dropping a line of questioning. It was nice to have such power still.

"Do you have a recent photo of Emma?" Graham asked turning back to Ingrid.

Ingrid quickly reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her and a younger blonde standing next to the claw machine. Graham took the photo and quickly looked it over. He chuckled a bit upon seeing the strange resemblance between the two.

"If you hadn't said she was adopted, I would have thought she was your actual daughter," he said.

Ingrid turned to him and shot him an annoyed glare, "She is my actual daughter," she corrected him rather harshly and the sheriff quickly backpedaled.

"O-of course, I apologize Miss. I simply meant-"

Regina was enjoying watching the sheriff stick his foot in his mouth so much she had to stifle a laugh. It seemed that along with her stunning good looks, Mrs. Arendelle also had quite the bite.

"Sheriff…" Regina ground out threateningly, loving the way he shrank back from her tone, "we have a missing child on our hands. I believe the relevant term is the first 48, and we are rapidly passing that deadline."

"Right, I'll start making photocopies of this, then I'll start hitting the pavement. I think I can also get a few people in to help look." Graham responded meekly.

"Is that all you can do?" Ingrid asked indignantly.

The Sheriff's eyes darted around anxiously, but Regina decided to step in and save him. "It's a pretty small town," she told Ingrid, "Also, if I tell the towns people to help look, they'll help look. I can be… persuasive like that."

Ingrid turned to Regina and smirked knowingly at her. "You have quite a lot of power here, it seems," she said, "I guess I should be grateful you decided to help me."

Regina returned a smirk of her own. "I do indeed have a lot of power here Ms. Arendelle. When I speak, people listen." For a moment, something passed over Ingrid's expression. It seemed like… interest? Maybe a bit of attraction. Regina felt her heart flutter, and a smile tug at her lips.

Ingrid leaned into Regina ever so slightly. "I can see that, thank you Regina. For everything," She said, her voice dropping one octave lower.

Regina gave the blonde a small, but very emotionally charged look back and replied. "you're quite welcome, Ms. Arendelle."

For a moment, the two just stood there, silently. Neither knowing where this moment was going, but Regina felt she had to take it down a few notches. This was getting too intense too quickly.

"I can't imagine what you must be going through," She said trying to draw the conversation back to the problem at hand.

A deep frown quickly mared Ingrid's face, breaking whatever strange moment had passed between them. "It's horrible," Ingrid replied, "When I realized Emma was gone, it was like my whole world came crashing down. She was meant to be my happily ever after, but..." Ingrid couldn't finished her sentence before choked sob ripped from her throat as the weight of the past two days came crashed down on her all at once.

Seeing the tears beginning to roll down the blonde woman's cheeks, Regina began to shift uncomfortably. She never did do well with other people's feelings; She could barely make sense her own emotions, let alone handle someone else's. but here she was, standing across from a distraught mother, and all she knew was that she didn't like seeing her cry. Regina wracked her mind for something that might help console the distraught woman, but the only thing that she knew of that could somewhat soothe her own feelings was a nice warm glass of her famous apple cider. Hmmm… maybe…

Completely unsure as to why she was doing this, Regina suddenly placed her hand on Ingrid's shoulder and said, "Hey, how would you like a glass of the best apple cider you ever tasted."

Looking up through her tears and upon seeing the Mayor's slightly mischievous smile, Ingrid let out a small wet chuckle. "Got anything stronger?" she asked wiping the tears from her eyes.

Regina gave her her own chuckle and said, "oh, I think you'll find my recipe has quite the kick to it."

Leaving the Sheriff to do his job, the two women left to station and headed for Regina's manor.

-0-0-0-0-

Regina walked over to the sofa carrying a bottle of her signature apple cider in the one hand and two glasses in the other. Setting a glass down in front of the blonde, Regina poured a healthy amount for her guest. Ingrid looked up smiled.

"Thanks," she said, before taking a quick sip.

Regina watched the woman intently once again, without really realizing it, waiting for her reaction. When a large smile spread across the other woman's face, Regina let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding and smiled back.

"Well, you certainly weren't lying," Ingrid said, "this without a doubt the best apple cider I've ever tasted."

Upon hearing this, Regina's smile only got wider. "I never lie when it comes to apples, dear," she replied cheekily. She did after all give Snow White a cursed apple and told her straight up that it was cursed.

Ingrid unaware of the how loaded that statement was, just chuckled, "so I see."

The two women lapsed into a comfortable silence while they each sipped down the delicious apple cider. Every once in a while the two of them would glance at the other when they thought the other wasn't looking. And a few times they weren't. But mostly, they would both look over and see the other looking at them from over their glasses and they would both quickly avert their eyes. Both women were rather confused by this strange dance they were doing. It had been a long time since any of them felt something quite like this, but neither woman was willing to make the first move. Three glasses in, however, both women were starting to loosen up and they found that conversation came a lot easier.

"So what's it like being the mayor of a town like this?" Ingrid asked.

"Oh, it's quite boring," Regina replied, "Mostly I deal with budget meetings and the city council. But I get things done. the roads will never go to ruin whilst I am Mayor."

"And how long have you been Mayor?"

Regina allowed herself a private smirk. 'Since I arrived in this world,' she answered in her head. "For as long as I can remember, no one ever really runs against me."

Leaning forward, Ingrid gave her a knowing smile. "I'm guessing no one has been able to measure up to powerful woman such as yourself?" She said cheekily.

Regina chuckled back darkly. "Let's just say the people know who's in charge. Someone can always run against me. They never do."

While this was indeed true, Regina wasn't exactly sure if it was her intimidation factor, or if it was simply a product of the curse that saw to her uncontested elections every four years. In the end though, it didn't matter to her. As long as she held onto her power, she didn't really care why she was constantly re-elected.

"So you got all this power, respect and influence. Why, help me then? Surely it can't be for the publicity." Ingrid asked.

Regina frowned. She was asking herself the same question since she met the woman, and each time the motivation seemed to change. First it was curiosity, then it was slight suspicion, then it was sympathy, now though…

"I… To be honest, I don't really know," Regina admitted, "we don't get many visitors here in storybrooke. I guess you… intrigue me."

Ingrid lowered her head, staring at her glass before taking another sip, "well, whatever your reasons, I'm so glad your doing something to help me. Emma is my everything. I haven't felt like this for someone since..."

Ingrid trailed off as she fought not to remember the tragedy the befell her and her sisters, but Regina wanted to know.

"Since what?" The Mayor asked.

Ingrid's eyes began to tear up. "My sisters. We were so close when we were young, but then… then one day I did something in anger and one of my sisters… died." her face was now streaked with tears as she remembered that day, reliving it in vivid detail. "My other sister… she blamed me and banished me from her life. She died in a shipwreck a few years later."

Regina had moved over to the couch, as Ingrid told her story. While she was clearly leaving out a lot, Regina got the gist of what happened. Placing a her hand on the crying womans back Regina tried to sooth her by gently rubbing her back.

Regina was now beginning to realize why she was so drawn to this woman. They were very similar. Like her, Ingrid was carrying with her a lot of pain from her past, and it showed on the blonde's face. That was why she couldn't take her eyes off her. Her eyes held shadows from her past, and her lips. There were turned down in a perpetual frown, just like her own.

She never meant for things to get so personal when she offered to host this night of drinking. She barely knew the woman she was attempting to comfort. But what he did know was pretty damn similar to her own pain. So it wasn't really a surprise when, Regina found herself also reliving her greatest tragedy.

"I was in love with this boy who worked at my mother's stables when I was young. His name was Daniel." Ingrid's sobs subsided as Regina began her tale. "We kept it a secret because I knew my mom wouldn't approve. I was so in love with him. I would have done anything to be with him. We were actually going to elope."

"What happened?" Ingrid asked, sensing the tone of loss in the Mayor's voice.

"My mother… found out. She… she killed him… Right in front of me."

Ingrid eyes widened, and she gasped. "Oh my god, Regina. I am sorry."

Regina fought hard not to let her pain show on her face. She wasn't successful. "It… it was a long time ago," she said lamely.

The two women sat in solemn silence, each trying to get a hold on their swirling emotions. It was only when the Regina began absentmindedly stroking Ingrid's back, and Ingrid had placed her hand on Regina's knee, did they both finally start to calm down. Looking up, both women caught the others eyes. A spark flew between them, and butterflies bloomed in their stomachs as they gazed into each other's eyes.

Ingrid may not have been well versed in romantic love, but she new when she was attracted to someone. And somehow, in such a short time, Ingrid began to feel very attracted to this small town mayor.

Regina also knew what was going on. This ache in her chest. The want… no the NEED to be close to someone. She remembered it well, and it scared her how fast she had fallen for the blonde who she barely knew anything about. The logical side of her was screaming at her to get away, to put some distance between them and build up her walls, but staring into woman's eyes, seeing the same attraction mirrored back at her from Ms. Arendelle, she faltered, and a small piece of the woman began to worm its way into her darkened heart.

"Just because it happened a long time ago, doesn't mean it stops hurting," Ingrid said, stroking Regina's knee with her long delicate fingers, "trust me, I know."

And in that moment, whether she knew it or not, Regina was a goner.

Unfortunately, the sound of the front door suddenly opening broke whatever spell that had been holding two women. Ingrid stood up just in time to see Sheriff Graham walk into the parlour.

"Did you find her?" She asked anxiously.

"No not yet," the sheriff replied, "I'm just here to tell you that we got the word out. If she's anywhere if town, we should know where she is soon."

Regina stood up and gave the former huntsman a lethal glare. She didn't know if it was a good thing that he interrupted them, she was still sorting out her feelings, but she was still very annoyed that he did.

"Thank you sheriff. Is that all?"

In a testament to his survival instincts, Graham noticed her icy tone and quickly stammered out his leave. "I-I'll just… head back to the station. You know… fielding calls. Good day, Madam Mayor, Ms. Arendelle."

And with that, he left. Ingrid turned back to Regina and muttered something about being tired. Regina directed her to a spare bedroom and left her to her own devices. Regina spent the next hour sitting in the parlour, going over the rather strange rollercoaster of events that had just occurred. By the end of that hour, she was no closer to figuring out how she got here than she had been when it all began. All she knew was that she hoped Ms. Arendelle decided to stick around once they found her daughter.

-0-0-0-0-

Emma bent down and smoothed her hand over the small cut above Lily's eyebrow for the third time in the past half hour, pouring her magic into her hands as she did. While she hadn't learned any formal healing spells yet, she could still brute force her magic to do some basic healing. It was dangerous, and horribly exhausting, but she could do it. The wound on Lily's head had been a lot worse before she used her magic to heal her, but though sheer force of will, Emma managed to close it up. Emma stood back up, just barely able to keep herself for falling over due to exhaustion. "Ok, lets keep going," she said

Cruella and Ursula looked over at her with contempt.

"You don't tell us what to do, girly," her black and white kidnapper snapped back.

Emma scoffed having already suffered through this argument three times before. "Just get your ass moving, Glenn Close,"

"Don't you dare reference that charlatan's movie again," Cruella snapped, while begrudgingly picking up the tree branch frame of Lily's makeshift stretcher.

"Oh, I thought you'd be a big fan," Emma said, genuinely confused as to why she would hate 101 Dalmatians. She was still refusing to believe that she was interacting with THE Cruella De Vil, so she had written the woman off as some Disney obsessed fan girl who somehow stumbled across genuine magic. Maybe she was one of those people that loved the original more than the live action remake.

Emma wouldn't get an answer to her question. Cruella just groaned loudly and they all continued on in silence.

They had been walking for nearly 2 hours and there seemed to be no end in sight. There was just one really long and depressingly empty stretch of road. During that time though, Emma had thought quite a bit about everything that has happened up till now. She also subtlety started to probing her surroundings with her magic. She could feel a viscous aura all around her that thankfully got weaker the closer she got to the town. This, along with the sensation they all felt when they were driving to the town line, confirmed without a doubt, that there was magic at play here. This both intrigued and scared her. She was walking into something that she had no understanding of, save that it had something to do with magic. Emma was really wishing Ingrid was here with her, she'd know what to do.

As the four of them continued down the road, Ursula suddenly stopped and gasped as if something just occurred to her. "Hey, wait a minute," she exclaimed, "you're really strong in magic, can't you just teleport us into town?"

Upon hearing this, Cruella also stopped and whirled around, "I swear to god, if I've been lugging this bloody wench around for nothing-"

Emma sighed heavily, cutting them off.

"No. I can't just teleport us to the hospital," she said, "I can't teleport to a place I haven't been before."

Understanding seemed to pass over their faces, and they each turned away glaring at the other as if to say, 'seriously, you should have known that,' and they quickly resumed walking.

The four of them made it around a bend in the road and saw a long stretch of road with a few buildings peeking just over the horizon.

"Finally," Emma muttered, picking up her pace, now that the finish line was in sight. As they neared the town, Emma was overjoyed to see a large brown truck suddenly appear over the hill. Finally, they could get Lily to a hospital. Before she could get too excited though, Cruella's arm suddenly wrapped around Emma's shoulder, drawing her in close as she whispered in her ear.

"Remember girly: Mutually Assured Destruction. We were just out for a nice little drive when we got into a car crash. Nice and simple. You got that?"

Swallowing the knot in her throat, Emma nodded. It was so easy for her to forget that she was still their prisoner as much they were hers. Now she was vividly aware of that fact once again. Help was literally coming down the road, and now she wouldn't be able to say anything without endangering Lily. This frustrated Emma to no end.

What the hell kind of good is magic, if I can't use it to save the ones I love? The thought helplessly

Ursula stood out in front waving the car down, while Cruella stayed behind Emma. As the truck slowed, Emma suddenly got this strange uneasy feeling in her gut, but she didn't know why.

The vehicle stopped. There was only one person inside. A man with shoulder length brown hair and stubble on his face. The man opened the door, and stepped out. Coming around to the front of the car, Emma noticed the man was walking with an ornate cane in his right hand, and a noticeable limp. One look at him sent that uneasy feeling into overdrive. Something about him seemed… wrong. Very, very wrong.

The man turned to her and smiled, sending waves of disgust rippling throughout her body. "Ms. Swan, a pleasure to finally have you here," he said, with a distinct Irish accent.

At this point, Emma realized who this man was supposed to be.

"Y- You're the guy who told these guy to kidnap me, aren't you? Rumplestiltskin?" She asked, reasonably sure she knew the answer, and the man's reply proved her right.

"Quite quick on the uptake, aren't you Ms. Swan. Though, kidnap is such a terrible word." He said, the man's slimy tone practically dripping out of his smirk. Emma really didn't want to be anywhere near this guy. His entire aura practically screamed bad touch which made him knowing her former last name extra creepy.

"Ok first of all, my name isn't Swan anymore, it's Arendelle; and what else would you call, chloroforming someone, then driving them two states away?" She bit back in the most snarky way she could.

"Kidnaping," the man snarked right back without missing a beat, "however your situation, is a bit more nuanced than that. This is more of a… forceful homecoming."

Emma shifted on her feet, not liking the way he said that with such confidence. "Homecoming?" She echoed, uneasily.

"Yes, homecoming," the man confirmed, cryptically, "I would love to tell you all about it, but unfortunately, we don't have the time. We have much to do and little time with which to do it. Get in the truck, Ms. Swan your destiny awaits."

Emma scowled at his deliberate use of her former name, but decided not to argue about it. She had other things on her mind, namely Lily. "Wait, my friend needs a hospital," she said, fearing the man might leave her behind.

"Lucky for you then, your friend has an important role to play in my plans," the man said impatiently, without even turning around, "Now, get in the car."

After Lily was loaded up in the flatbed of the truck, Emma got in back seat, while Cruella got in the front. Ursula stayed in the flatbed with Lily to watch over her and also to keep a gun on her so Emma wouldn't try anything. When they were all set, the man started the truck and began driving back down the way he came from heading for Storybrooke General Hospital.


End file.
